New In Town
by Dingo
Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove. (slash inside)
1. in the beginning

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove.

Timeline: Just after The Wild Wipeout, just after Stop the Hate Master.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. I would like to own everything though, but then Power Rangers wouldn't be rated G/PG.

**MAJOR thank you to crimson shadow for suggesting the actual correct translation for what Dustin said.**

Warning: there is slash in here. If you don't know what that is, it is a homosexual relationship. To be precise, two. Possibly three, I haven't thought ahead quite that far.

Pairings as determined by me: Adam/Rocky, Hunter/Dustin, Cam?

* * *

Dustin skidded around the corner, and instinctively knew he'd gone too far. He had nearly righted himself before he got side-swiped hard by one of the too-eager newbies. The bike wobbled once, twice, and Dustin felt a brief surge of panic before it righted itself. He exhaled and pushed on the brake. When the bike didn't respond, he guided the bike into a skid and stopped just past Kelly. 

"They should really warn those guys," Storm Chargers' owner scowled, shaking her head at a disappearing purple bike and mismatched rider.

"I'm just glad we fitted it with that new balancer," Dustin frowned, checking over his bike before unclipping his helmet. He muttered under his breath as he ran his fingers along a dent in the metalframe and paused over a scratch in the paint. "She's gonna need some work before she's back to race condition," he judged quickly, running one finger between the metal and the front wheel. A moment of uncharacteristic anger flashed across Dustin's face when he pulled out a broken wire from underneath. "Crap," he murmured, staring at the neat cut. Dustin inspected the rest of the wheel, cursing as he found where the dent was starting to dig into the front wheel. He stood and slung his yellow and black helmet over the handlebars, scowling at Kelly. "Can I go work on it back at the shop?"

"Sure," Kelly nodded, running her own hand across the damaged fender. "You remember which brand of brake line it was?"

Dustin waved absently over his shoulder at her. "Yeah."

Kelly turned back to the track, shaking her head. Dustin was lucky this was only training.

Now here was an interesting picture: the Yellow Wind Ranger wheeling his bike along, front wheel off the ground, and still wearing his motorcross gear.

"You busy?"

Dustin whirled around, dropping slightly into a defensive stand. When he saw who it was, he didn't relax. "Nice to finally see you."

Hunter grimaced. "I deserved that."

"Bastard," Dustin muttered.

Hunter winced again. "That too."

Dustin gestured to the bike. "You're lucky I'm busy or else I'd have to kick you in the nuts or something silly like that."

The Crimson Thunder Ranger frowned as he fell into step with his teammate. "You're feeling awfully vindictive today, aren't you?"

The slightly shorter brunette glared at him. "Oo, you've been watching grown-up shows again, haven't you?"

Hunter scratched his head guiltily. "It's a daily word calendar…"

Dustin snorted.

Hunter hated feeling like this. Blake was the only one who could ever goad him into anything with guilt, but that was only with incessant begging and pleading. That was of course before he met Dustin.

The Yellow Ranger never held a grudge for long, or over petty things, but when he did – watch out. Silent treatment, insults, threats; it was astonishing what did, or didn't come out of Dustin's mouth when he was pissed.

He meant that in the best, non-suss sounding way.

Hunter sighed. "I'm sorry. I freaked, and didn't deal with it."

After a beat of silence Dustin sighed back. "I wasn't aware I sucked that much."

"You weren't bad." Hunter scuffed his shoes in the dirt for a moment before saying quietly, "That's why I ran."

Dustin halted his walking, letting the front wheel drop to the ground and turned to Hunter. "So I should be a crap kisser and you won't run?"

Hunter fidgeted, looking at his hands. "No. I just…"

"Just what, man?" Dustin prodded when Hunter fell silent.

"I know I'm bi. Leaning towards gay. I just…I want to know you, if this is just a test, 'cause if it is, forget about it. But…I really do like you Dustin, and it's not really-"

Here the blonde was abruptly cut off.

Hunter touched his lips incredulously. "Did you just kiss me? Again?"

"You just don't know when to shut up, dude," Dustin grinned. He kissed Hunter again quickly, nearly giggling at the look on Hunter's face. Although it was a more manly laugh, of course. He quickly entwined one hand with Hunter's, pretty much forcing the Crimson Ranger into helping push the bike. "And I'm not letting you run away again," he finished.

Hunter looked down at their joined hands, and swallowed.

They continued on their way in silence.

* * *

"Isn't that sweet," Lothor crowed. "The Crimson Ranger and the Yellow Ranger, making out and making up." 

Marah pouted. "And he was cute too. Why did he have to turn out gay?"

" 'Cause he met you," Kapri snorted. "You'd be enough to turn any guy gay."

Marah looked confused, as per usual.

Lothor shook his head at his nieces. "Do you two ever shut up?"

"Non, mon ami," a French-accented voice said from behind them. "They are the, how do you say? Chatterboxes."

Lothor blinked. "Right…and you are?"

The creature bowed. "I am Pepe LeBeau."

"Pepe LePeu!" Marah squealed. "I love you!"

"I am not that infernal skunk, mademoiselle," the alien corrected.

"Actually, you do kinda look like him," Kapri pointed out.

The large, black and white striped alien smoothed his fur down in a huff. "If that is the way you treat a foreigner, I shall be going." He turned, and started to walk out.

"Wait, wait," Lothor said resignedly. "They were just leaving, weren't you girls?"

"No we weren't," Marah protested.

Lothor glared at her. "OH YES YOU WERE!" he thundered.

"We were going yes we were, bye Uncle!" Kapri grabbed her sister by the arm and dragged her out of the room, Marah's complaints still audible.

Lothor slapped his head in remorse several times. "Why did I ever decide to work with family?" he groaned.

"I could…remove them for you," Pepe offered.

A contemplative look flashed over Lothor's face. "How, pray tell, would you do that?"

"I can open portal, may be useful," Pepe wheedled.

Lothor considered it for a few minutes before shaking his head. "Nah. They irritate Zurgane. It's fun to watch."

"These…Power Rangers…they give you hard time?" Pepe held up a large blaster ray. "Moi vouloir supprimer leur pour vous - I eliminate hard time."

"Where exactly do they go? I don't want them to have any way of returning," Lothor warned.

Pepe scoffed. "The only way to return is to have portal opened by Morphin' Master, and last one on Earth died five years ago." He smirked – an expression disturbingly reminiscent of someone attempting to pass gas. "And I send them back in time and to different place! They have nowhere to go, no?"

"No," Lothor agreed with an evil grin. "Nowhere to go."

* * *

Cam pushed his glasses further up his nose – a habit of his he just couldn't seem to break. In the few times he didn't have them on he found himself absently poking himself in the face. That was pretty much the reason he didn't try contacts – he'd have a constant bruise just between his eyes. 

He cursed his father – how the hell could he manage to look so menacing when demanding his son go outside? He was a guinea pig for God's sake. A freakin' guinea pig. If anyone was there…he'd be embarrassed for days. Anyone except the Wind and Thunder Rangers, of course. They took worse orders from Sensei, and Hunter and Blake didn't even know him when he was completely human.

The only way that situation could have been more degrading was if his father was…dunno, a rabbit? A kitten? Something even cuter?

Cam looked, disinterested, at the door of Storm Chargers, a sign saying 'Sorry, we're closed, come back later'. He vaguely remembered Dustin telling Blake and Shane about some time trials being held soon, and the shop being closed today as Dustin needed to train. So why exactly was he here?

"I'm telling you, dude, end of the month. If not earlier," Dustin's carefree tone shocking Cam out of his stare. He blinked before turning around to watch Hunter and Dustin wheel a bike along the track leading to the building.

"It'll never happen," Hunter argued, smiling over the bike at his bantering partner. He glanced up and saw Cam, and his smile slid off. "Cam," he acknowledged, removing his hand from the bike's seat and crossing his arms.

"Hunter."

"Dustin," the Yellow Ranger said with a smile, pulling a key out of his back pocket and unlocking Storm Charger's front door. He pulled the bike in, careful to keep the front wheel off the ground and keeping it as still as possible.

"You take a spill?" Cam questioned, walking in after Hunter. The Crimson Ranger held the door open for him, and he glanced at him quizzically.

Hunter said nothing, only smiled enigmatically.

Cam shook his head, deciding that Hunter must have boinked his head somewhere between outside and inside. Knocked some manners or something into him.

"Nah man, idiots down the track. Side swiped the front wheel, bent the fender and the brake line got cut." Dustin ran his finger along a wire up to a neat end to illustrate the point. "Glad I work here, coulda cost me a heap in replacements and mechanic work."

Hunter leaned on the table just behind the counter. "I still say never," he grinned.

"Seriously? The way they're going I wouldn't be surprised to see them making out through the window," Dustin called back, hunting around in a pile of boxes.

Cam shook his head. "You _are_ talking about Blake and Tori, aren't you?"

"No, we're talking about you and Shane. Of course Blake and Tori."

Cam mock-laughed at Hunter's little joke. He pushed himself up to sit on the counter before rebutting. "Me an' Shane'll start making out the moment you and Dustin do."

There was a choked laughing sound coming from the boxes and Cam sent a curious glance Dustin's way. Hunter just grinned and turned to face Cam. "Well, you know me," he drawled, purposefully over-emphasising a hick accent. "I like 'em tall, dark and stupid."

"Hey!" Dustin called from the mountain he was currently buried in. "I resent that."

Cam rolled his eyes. "No, you resemble that."

Dustin poked his head out for a moment, considering. "Yeah, guess I might, 'ey?" He appealed to Hunter. "So come on, gimme some lovin' baby!"

Hunter just gave him a dirty look.

Dustin just shrugged and dove back into the boxes.

Cameron Watanabe was very bored. He had been sitting in this workshop for at least three quarters of an hour. He was starting to wonder how much longer it would be before his father let him back in to Ninja Ops.

* * *

Hunter Bradley was bored. He had been sneaking glances at Dustin whenever Cam looked at the clock or out the window. He was starting to wonder how much longer before Cam went back to Ninja Ops. 

Dustin Brooks was not bored. He had been replacing the broken brakes and hammering the fender back into shape. He was not thinking about Cam going back to Ninja Ops – he had nearly enjoyed the last forty-five minutes spent making idle chit-chat with Hunter and Cam. Not to mention taking off his chest protector once and throwing it at Cam. Hunter had gotten reamed for that. It was times like that which made Dustin glad that he was a bit of an airhead and above suspicion for most things.

On one of his routine looks out the window Cam noticed a skunk-like monster that was, disturbingly enough, skipping. Hunter was staring at Dustin and Dustin was just finishing off repairs to the dent.

"Uh…guys?" Cam ventured. Neither male turned. "Houston, we have a bogey, one o'clock."

Dustin finally looked up from his work. "Say what now?"

"Lothor sent down something that looks like a skunk. And Kelzacks. Can't forget the Kelzacks."

Hunter nearly bounded out of the workshop. "Thank you God."

Dustin sent him a look as they headed out Storm Charger's main entrance. "Is there something going on between you and Lothor I should know about?"

His words were pretty much lost as Hunter had already morphed and had launched himself into the air towards the…skunk…thing.

A few minutes, numerous furious kicks, two blaster shots, one call for the others and more than a few Ninja tricks later, the Rangers regrouped in front of the skunk, who had identified himself earlier as Pepe LeBeau. Hunter grinned as Pepe stumbled around groggily, not having landed any attacks since the Rangers had first noticed him

"Run along, merci beaucoup," Cam waved. "You're getting your butt kicked here."

Pepe didn't respond. He lifted a large blaster that materialized in his hand and aimed for Hunter, who was in the middle. He fired.

Dustin saw the blue beam of light as if in slow motion. His eyes widened under his helmet as it headed straight for Hunter. The Crimson Thunder Ranger had been grabbed from behind by a Kelzack and was struggling out of its grip…but by the time he did, it would be too late.

The Yellow Ranger made a split-second decision. He dove in front of Hunter, taking the shot to the side of the head.

In a sparkle of yellow and purple Dustin disappeared.

* * *

Adam watched the Viewing Globe intently, showing no emotion. On screen, Rocky and Adam were shown arguing, at one point Adam storming away before Rocky grabbed his collar and dragged him back. 

"Perhaps-"

"Perhaps nothing, Zordon," Adam cut him off. "I should have fought harder against it."

"Should the other Rangers have fought harder against it?" Zordon asked mildly.

Adam banged his head down on the console to his side, and by the amount of noise he made Zordon took it that it wasn't a gentle tap. "I just…"

'I never wanted to know I have that much hate in me…'

At that thought Adam teleported out in a cloud of black. Zordon sighed. Right around now was the time he wished the most that he had a physical body in this dimension – if only to give his 'children' a hug or a good kick up the butt. Right now he wasn't sure which of those he wanted to do to Adam.

Adam materialized behind a large tree in Angel Grove Park, and barely before his body was entirely physical he had launched himself into a kata, designed specifically for clearing the mind. It wasn't working all that well today.

He furiously pounded the air, trying to turn his pent-up emotions into jumping higher, kicking harder, concentrating on surroundings more.

Which was how, a few minutes in, he landed on a spin kick and immediately spun with an open hand that stopped half an inch from Rocky's throat.

The Red Ranger simply raised an eyebrow as he pushed Adam's hand away. "A little fired up, are we?" he teased.

Adam said nothing, only dropped his stance and bent his head.

Rocky flopped onto the ground next to the tree, and pulled his friend down with him. "Tell Uncle Rocky what the problem is," he sighed.

Adam sighed in response, leaning his head back to rest on the tree. He let a warm breeze pass over his face, cooling the thin sheen of sweat he had collected throughout his spontaneous workout.

Rocky glanced over before bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on his knees. "I have a feeling this is something to do with yesterday," he said lightly.

Adam said nothing, only inclined his head a little.

"I'm sorry for anything I said." Rocky scratched the back of his head, then laughed a little. "I know you, Adam. You went up and watched Zordon's tape, didn't you?"

The Black Ranger's silence said more than an affirmative could.

"Adam, we couldn't control it. You know that-"

"I said that you were a lousy friend."

The soft voice came abruptly. Adam turned his head to look Rocky in the eye and smiled painfully. "I said that you were stupid and couldn't see things right in front of your face."

Rocky breathed deeply after that, gathering his thoughts. When he thought he had a reasonable argument he straightened his legs and turned, side on, so he could see Adam without needing to move his head. "What did I say?"

Adam blinked. "Um…I didn't listen."

Rocky shrugged with a quiet grin. "I'll bet I said things like that to you. Maybe worse. Should I be brooding over that the rest of my days?"

Adam had no answer.

Which was actually a pretty good thing, considering what happened next.

In a flash of purple a body appeared, maybe five feet in front of them.

Rocky could only blink. "Okay. That was strange, even for us."

Adam could only nod in response, creeping forward before hopping over the body and checking for as many signs of life he could.

"He's breathing," he called back to Rocky. "And he's not bleeding anywhere that I can see."

"It's a he?" Rocky asked jokingly, joining Adam on his side of the man…boy, Rocky corrected. The guy couldn't be much older than themselves.

Adam sent him a glare with a smile threatening to break his bad mood. "Of course it's a he." Adam motioned toward the guy's clothing. "Unless there's one heck of a surprise under there." He frowned as he looked closer at the guy's clothing. It looked like he was in a biking suit or something – he was wearing normal clothes underneath but on top he had elbow pads and what looked like some kind of kidney protector.

Rocky slapped Adam lightly on the shoulder, glad Adam was starting to get out of his funk. "So what should we do, oh grand mighty leader?" he joked. "Hospital or Command Centre?"

Adam considered for a second before raising his wrist. "Zordon?"

"Yes, Adam?"

"There's a guy here how literally just…appeared. He's unconscious. Should we bring him to the Command Centre or take him to the hospital?"

Rocky interrupted before Zordon could reply. "Whoa, hold on…he's waking up."

Adam quickly ended the conversation over his watch, ducking down so he was eye-level with the guy.

His eyes blinked sleepily a few times before he moaned and shook his head.

"Killer uphill," he muttered, holding his head and wincing. As he finally got his bearings he blinked at the two Rangers in surprise. "…hi?"

"Hi," Adam returned.

Noticing the guy's trouble with sitting up, Rocky moved behind him and braced him, letting the as-yet unnamed boy support only part of his own body weight.

"Thanks."

Rocky grinned at brown hair. "You're welcome."

Suddenly remembering his manners and first aid training, Adam snapped to attention. "I'm Adam," he introduced himself. "And that's Rocky. How are you feeling?" he continued, checking the guy's eyes nonchalantly.

The boy grimaced and lifted his hand to his head again. "I'm pretty sure I have a concussion," he said, sounding disappointed. "Darn."

Rocky exchanged a mirth-filled glance with Adam. He sounded so despondent, like he had lost his life savings.

Adam checked the guy's eyes more thoroughly. "Looks like you do have a concussion," he said, noticing slightly uneven pupils. "You feel up to getting to a hospital…uh…"

"Dustin. No hospitals," the guy demanded, shaking his head before wincing. "Bad idea.(1) Dustin seu idiota. vc perdeu uma aposta para o Hanter, de todas as pessoas."

Rocky laughed. "(2) Qual foi a aposta?"

Dustin looked back at Rocky, shifting in the half-hug so he could face Rocky. Adam quickly squashed a strange stirring in his lower belly as the two grinned and chattered back and forth. For all he knew they were deciding on what colour Adam would wear to their wedding. It's thoughts like that that can get you in trouble, dude.

"(3) Um amigo disse que eu nao passaria dois meses sem ter um machucado na cabeça." Dustin giggled drunkenly. He sobered up a bit. "Whoa. Real bad when I sound like Tori."

Rocky laughed again, looking back up at Adam. "I like this guy. Where did you learn-"

"-Brazilian Portuguese? I was born in Brazil. Lived there for a while," Dustin finished, leaning forward and put his head between his knees.

Adam shifted, a little uncomfortable with their closeness. "Not to disturb you or anything, but…how exactly did you get here?"

Dustin glanced at him quizzically before looking around. He struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on Rocky. "Where is here?" he asked, puzzled by the green surroundings.

"The park," Rocky said helpfully.

Dustin looked blank.

"Angel Grove Park."

"Oh crap." Dustin sagged onto Rocky, and again Adam felt something disturbing his stomach.

"You obviously weren't in Angel Grove before you appeared, were you?" Adam asked quickly, attempting to rid himself of the faint queasiness.

Dustin shook his head before wincing. He started to say something, then his eyes grew wide and he stopped. "You said 'appeared'. What exactly do you mean, man?"

Adam exchanged a glance with Rocky. "You just…appeared out of thin air," he said slowly, deciding a straight answer would be best before revealing anything about being Power Rangers.

Dustin struggled out of Rocky's grip and swayed slightly on his own feet. "Okay," he said slowly. "My head hurts a little too much to deal with excuses."

"You need an excuse?" Rocky questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Just say it was Power Ranger related."

"Power Ranger?" Dustin burst out before laughing a little too loudly and a little too fake sounding. "What would give you that idea, dudes?"

Adam and Rocky exchanged glances. This guy was hiding something, and wasn't good at hiding it. "Because strange things always happen around Power Rangers around here," Rocky said delicately, not exactly lying.

"Whoa." Dustin made a motion with his hand as if to cut Rocky off. "Power Rangers are real here?"

"Uh, yeah. Aren't they wherever you come from?" Adam replied, puzzled.

"Uh, yeah," Dustin replied, scratching his head.

That's when the other one appeared.

* * *

Hunter blinked hard a few times before quickly checking himself out. Ten fingers, two feet, no tail…he was fine. And he still had his Ranger suit on – that was always a plus. Evidently that ray wasn't designed to destroy or injure. Capture was still up in the air, though. 

He glanced up, and immediately located Dustin. Problem was that he was behind two guys. Both shorter than Dustin, not to mention himself, but the problem lay in the fact that both dropped into a defensive position upon his arrival.

"Another evil one, fantabulous," one muttered.

Hunter took mild offence to that; he hadn't been evil for like two months. Plus he'd been going to Evil Anonymous. There had been some other guy called Merrick there who insisted that he hadn't been evil but was only going for his partner, so at least Hunter could admit it.

But hey, when told to be evil, you be evil. "Hand over the boy," he commanded.

The two exchanged glances. "No way in hell," the shorter one commented.

Dustin again caught his eye as he stumbled slightly. Hunter felt a burst of anger explode deep within him; whatever these two had done to Dustin he would visit back upon them tenfold.

The Yellow Ranger nodded his head slightly to the left, and without moving his head Hunter's gaze flickered over and back. The side of forest to this park was going to help immensely.

Hunter nodded slowly, as if to the two in front. He saw just out of the corner of his eye Dustin carefully checking the park for any other people. Finding none, Dustin slowly inhaled to prepare himself.

As if on some silent signal Hunter threw himself forward, not even relying on his training. He simply hit and kept hitting as hard as he could, trying not to incorporate any of his normal arsenal. But quite bluntly, with him not trying, even his Ranger powers didn't stop him getting his butt handed to him on a silver platter with a little garnish of parsley.

A few minutes later he stumbled back, hunching over. Even disorientated and confused about whatever – wherever - 'here' was, he knew enough to leave everyone around – especially since he was outnumbered – to underestimate him. Give them no hints on how to prepare for him.

Hunter glanced up, and noted Dustin had gone to the trees. He had probably streaked over there – there hadn't been enough time for him to walk over in the state he was in – and Hunter was worried. Ninja Streaking was easy when at full strength, but with Dustin's injury the Yellow Ranger could be in worse shape…or had misjudged where he was going and ended up in some old lady's shopping over the other side of town.

Before he could scare himself with more stories about where Dustin ended up, he raised one hand to the sky. A crack of thunder sounded in the bright blue sky above, and as the two were distracted by looking for storm clouds he streaked away in a bouncing ball of lightning.

Adam turned back to the Ranger in front. "Ah crap," he sighed, watching a flickering red light dance away.

Rocky shrugged. "We obviously have a new evil Ranger in town."

(1) – Dustin, you idiot. You just lost a bet to Hunter, of all people.

(2) – What was the bet?

(3) – A friend said I couldn't go two months without a head injury.


	2. in the hotel room

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove. 

Timeline: Just after The Wild Wipeout, just after Stop the Hate Master.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. I would like to own everything though, but then Power Rangers wouldn't be rated G/PG.

Warning: there is slash in here. If you don't know what that is, it is a homosexual relationship. To be precise, two. Possibly three, I haven't thought ahead quite that far.

Pairings as determined by me: Adam/Rocky, Hunter/Dustin, Cam/?

  
  


   Hunter landed a few feet into the mass of trees, and quickly demorphed. The dark red of his suit stood out more than a plain crimson shirt and black pants did. "Dustin!" he called softly. "You here?"

   "Up here, dude," a slightly hushed voice said. Hunter glanced up, and the Yellow Ranger smiled down at him through the tree's leaves. "Hi."

   Hunter had no time to respond as he heard voices coming towards the mini-forest. He waved frantically at Dustin, and he took the hint, slinking gracefully - despite what was probably a concussion - to a tree branch that hid him better from the people below.

   Hunter had enough time to school his face into an indifferent look as he pushed his way through the foliage so he would be just visible to outside.

   "Hey! You!" he heard. He turned slightly, etching a confused expression on his face. The two men came over, both breathing only a touch heavy. Evidently they had sprinted the distance between them and here, and obviously they were both in good shape. "You seen a guy, about so tall-" one demonstrated, holding a hand an inch or two above his own head, "-brown, kinda messy hair, wearing like, biking stuff?"

   Hunter purposefully knitting his eyebrows and made his expression look even more confused. _Thank you Sensei Omino for giving me Spanish lessons. And thank you Shane for extending on those lessons._ He jabbered on in quick Spanish, saying nothing really of importance – mainly things like 'I don't understand you, sorry'.

   The two guys exchanged glances before the second one started to speak. It took Hunter a moment to realise he was speaking Spanish, and was pretty much translating what had just been said. Evidently this guy was not going to leave well enough alone until he got a definite yes or no answer.

   The Crimson Ranger waited until the second guy had pretty much repeated himself several times, before shaking his head. "No."

   "Gracias por su ayuda," Rocky said sarcastically, nerves stretching tight with the rapid appearance and disappearance of the strangely-dressed man.

   Hunter scowled at his back as they both left. He had been here for all of ten minutes and he already wanted to go home. Quickly.

   "Dustin!" he called again, making sure to keep his voice low enough so Spanish-speaking-dude and his friend didn't hear. "Clear."

   The Yellow Ranger dropped to the ground unceremoniously, hitting feet first before falling to land on his butt. "Ow."

   Hunter walked over and kneeled beside him. "You okay?"

   Dustin smiled at him weakly, absently noting that the speckled light filtered through the trees made Hunter looked like he had a halo. "You look like an angel, love," he murmured, raising one hand to run a knuckle against Hunter's cheek.

   Hunter blinked. That was a very unlike-Dustin thing to say.

   "I think I have a concussion."

   Hunter nodded. "That would explain it."

   Dustin sent him a puzzled look. "Explain what?"

   "I look like an angel?" Hunter smiled.

   Dustin rolled his eyes. "I can be romantic, you know."

   Hunter simply raised an eyebrow. 

   "My life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love," Dustin offered. "Romeo and Juliet."

   Hunter blinked in a rather long pause afterwards. "You memorised Shakespeare?"

   "How did you get here, anyway?" Dustin asked, slightly embarrassed.

   Hunter shrugged, assisting Dustin to his feet. "That skunk got me too."

   The two began to exit the tree line, pushing their way through thorns and branches with periodical winces. "So…what do we do now?" Dustin asked.

   The Crimson Ranger only blinked, before pointing in front of them. "Ask Cam."

  
  


   Cameron Watanabe was having a very bad day.

   He turned lightly on his heels, scouting the land quickly. Obviously that blaster had been designed to transport people over distance – perhaps over time. After having already gone back in time once, he wasn't going to rule it out.

   He sighed, already resigned to the fact that he was pretty much alone here…wherever and whenever here was.

   That was until he had turned one-eighty degrees, and noticed two figures jogging towards him. 

   "Demorph," Hunter hissed softly, glancing around as well to make sure no one was around.

   Cam did so, his suit fading in a flash of green. "Where are we?"

   Hunter shrugged, before Dustin piped up, "Angel Grove Park."

   Hunter glanced at him quizzically. "How did you know that?"

   "Adam and Rocky – those two guys – told me."

   Cam looked upwards, to see that the sun was hovering close to the horizon. "It'd probably be what, maybe five, six o'clock?" he reasoned. "We should probably look out for some kind of place to stay."

   Dustin yawned. "And dudes, I'm beat."

   Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Dustin, you have a concussion. I don't think you should sleep."

   Cam glanced back at Dustin, and quickly took in the rather glassy look in his friend's eyes. "We keep you awake tonight, and we'll get somewhere for you to sleep tomorrow."

   Dustin groaned, but stayed quiet.

   Hunter pointed off towards a bike path that curled over a rise that hid them from the rest of the park. "Follow that to civilisation?"

   Cam nodded, starting forward before stopping. "Uh, guys? Any idea what year this is?"

   Dustin and Hunter both looked blank.

   The Green Ranger sighed. "We need to find a newspaper stand or something, find out when we are."

   When both his friends still looked blank Cam started walking while pulling something out of his pocket. He opened his wallet and started glancing though the notes inside. "Half my money's from 2000," he explained, holding up a few dollar bills.

   Both Hunter and Dustin's faces lit up with understanding. "It'd be kinda stupid to use 2000 money if it's only 1999," Hunter concluded.

   "Bravo," Cam said sarcastically. 

   Dustin frowned. "It's got to be nineteen-nineties or later," he thought out loud. "One of those guys was wearing a 'No Fear' shirt, they only started making those in 1992."

   Cam blinked at the new knowledge. "So you can't even look at your Tsunami Cycles on my computer without blowing it up, but you know when a brand of T-shirt was first made?"

   The Yellow Ranger shrugged sheepishly. "If it helps, I heard a concussion can actually make you smarter?" he offered.

   "Trust me Dustin, you can't get any worse."

   Hunter was smacked in the back of the head for that comment.

  
  


   "I bags the couch," Cam stated, immediately falling face-first onto said piece of furniture.

   Hunter raised an eyebrow at Cam's position. "I'm fairly sure you could die there, bro. You might want to roll over," he suggested. 

   "Mmfph," Cam growled into the side of the couch, but he allowed himself to roll over and breathe again.

   Hunter shook his head before ducking into the door adjacent to the kitchen. "Bathroom's through here," he called out.

   Dustin plodded in before collapsing onto the queen size bed. "Can I go to sleep yet?" he complained, throwing an arm over his eyes.

   Cam checked his watch. He had glanced at a clock which said that in local time it was just after ten pm. His watch on the other hand still ran on Blue Bay time – and it said that it was nearly midnight. "You've been awake for five hours," he reasoned. "If you haven't seen any wavy lines, then go to sleep. Hunter can wake you up every couple of hours," he yawned. The promise of sleep was starting to look pretty darn appealing. He yawned again before getting up and opening the closet just beside the small TV set. "You need any blankets?" he asked Dustin, holding up a thick blue one as he kept digging.

   Cam only got a small snore in response.

   The Samurai Ranger simply rolled his eyes before throwing the blanket on the couch and poking his head into the bathroom. Hunter was still in there, busily checking out what was under the sink. "Make sure to wake up Dustin every couple of hours," he reminded him.

   "Why do I get the baby-sitting job?" Hunter frowned, glancing up to lock eyes with Cam in the mirror.

   Cam sighed. "Because you're the one next to him. If I do it I'll end up waking both of you, and then all three of us will be bitchy tomorrow."

   "But you're always bitchy," he heard Hunter mutter as he headed back to his makeshift bed.

  
  


   Hunter smiled as he took in Dustin lying on the…well, _their_ bed. He'd figured that the first time he and Dustin would share a bed it'd be a little more personal than this; he'd always pictured an empty couch, he frowned, taking in the black hair that was just visible over the blankets.

   His gaze turned back to Dustin and his expression softened again. He looked so much like a little boy, spread out carelessly and still in shoes and all. He carefully removed both Dustin's shoes and socks before removing his own, plus his shirt. He climbed into the bed, making sure he didn't wake up Dustin.

   As sleep eluded him for a few more moments, he propped himself up to watch the Yellow Ranger sleep, and to think.

   It had taken quite a while to find a hotel that they could both afford and that didn't look like a dump. The one they'd decided on was small, but had everything they'd need. It was a simple two-room arrangement; couch and bed on one side, kitchenette on the other, and a bathroom attached.

   They'd found out it was 1995 from a newspaper in a hotel lobby, and luckily enough both Hunter and Dustin had a decent amount of cash from before then. Cam could only chip in a few dollars, so it was obvious one of them would need to get money flowing somehow.

   They'd all decided sleep was best before they started anything, and they'd had enough money to pay for the room. Cam had then tried a few of his post-1995 bills in a vending machine, and luckily enough they'd worked. So as long as they had vending machines, they also had a steady supply of food. But Hunter could tell they couldn't survive for long off chocolate bars and Doritos – they needed some real, decent food.

   Hunter sighed as he dropped his head and stared aimlessly at Dustin's face outlined by light coming in from the window. He'd worry tomorrow. A whole new day to get spoiled by dark clouds over their heads.

   He had to smile though as Dustin muttered slightly in his sleep before rolling towards him. He pressed a quick kiss to Dustin's forehead before pulling him in closer. 

   If Cam woke up he could always explain it as sleep-induced.

  
  


   Dustin started slightly as he was shaken awake. Hunter smiled down at him. "Hey, babe."

   Dustin yawned, turning his head slightly to see the alarm clock on his bedside table. He groaned as he stared at blank wall, remembering he wasn't in his own bed at home, but in some strange place with Cam and Hunter. "What time is it?"

   "Three a.m."

   The Yellow Ranger sighed as he snuggled deeper into the blankets. "You don't have to do this, Hunter, I'm fine," he protested.

   Hunter sucked in a breath as Dustin's hands scuttled over his sides. "You have a concussion," he argued. "You're not _fine_."

   He received a naughty smile in return. "Does that mean you don't think I'm fine?" Dustin asked innocently.

   Hunter shook his head in despair. "I'm not going to win with you, am I?"

   "Nope," Dustin said simply.

   Hunter mock-growled at him before burying his face into a warm shoulder. 

   Dustin drew in a sharp breath. "Your nose is cold, dude," he complained.

   The Thunder Ranger shrugged, still nuzzled into Dustin's neck. "I kinda figured the first time we'd share a bed it'd be a little more private than this," he muttered.

   Dustin sighed. "I hear that."

   Hunter raised his head to glance over at Cam, the young Asian sleeping on the sofa with the blankets pulled up to his chest. "Argh," he sighed. "I need a drink."

   He crawled out of bed, regretting the action as soon as his feet found the floor. It was freezing. More than that, it was a wonder Cam wasn't frozen solid.

   A light snore followed Hunter into the kitchen, and he turned to see Dustin had already dropped back off to dreamland. He shook his head and shivered once before grabbing a glass. He turned on the tap, and his mind flowed like the water. Again. For a night where he should be sleeping he sure was doing a lot of thinking.

   What were they going to do? It wasn't likely that this city – more like a town – would have some kind of extreme sports shop like Storm Chargers back home for Dustin and himself to work in. Or some kind of place where Cam could use his computer skills. They had covered nearly the entire town in their search for a hotel, and if there had been a store like that they would have found it.

   Hunter sighed and finished off the water as he mentally shrugged. They were all in good shape. They could probably apply for a labouring job if there was nothing else available.

   He dumped the empty glass in the sink and wiped his eyes. He really hoped Cam would allow them both to sleep in for a while, considering the fact that they'd be awake on-and-off during the night. Speaking of Cam…

   Hunter sighed as he took in the Samurai Ranger's position on the couch. He was curled up into himself, the blankets barely covering his chest. "Silly prick," he muttered, lightly brushing a few short hairs off Cam's forehead. "Don't want you freezing to death. Imagine what Sensei would say." He lightly pulled the blankets up higher on Cam's body before straightening. Cam looked so tired; even beyond the fact that it was late and they were stuck in some warped-up time. 

   _You've been working too hard, my friend,_ Hunter thought with an exasperated shake of the head. Cam, not satisfied with only being the Samurai Ranger, was still working for hours at a time in Ninja Ops., convinced that the Zords would blow up if he wasn't there to monitor them. Quite honestly, he couldn't figure out why Cam didn't attempt to teach some of them a few of the basic things about his damn computer. 

   _Can you imagine Dustin designing a new mode for the Megazord? Or heck, even Shane?_

   _I'd volunteer. Blake knows a lot of computer basics. Or hey, Tori seems good enough with that kind of stuff._

   _Think later, Hunter. Sleep now._

   As if to prove the point, his body took that moment to let out a yawn. Hunter rolled his eyes. _I can take a hint._

   He clambered back into bed, making sure that the blankets were firmly up around Dustin's chin before kissing him on the forehead. "Love ya, Dust," Hunter murmured into his hair.

   "Mmm…tomorrow, dude," Dustin's sleepy voice came back.

   Hunter muttered back an assent before enclosing Dustin's body with his arms.

   The Yellow Ranger gave an unseen, soft smile before snuggling back into Hunter's nice, warm body heat.

  
  


   Cam never dreamed at night. If he fell asleep at his computer during daylight hours he would have the weirdest dreams, a reoccurring one having all the other Rangers suddenly transformed into guinea pigs like his father. But if he actually climbed into bed, pulled up the covers, took off his glasses and fell asleep, there was nothing.

   Which is why, at nearly five in the morning, when he woke up, he didn't even bother asking himself if he was dreaming.

   Dustin and Hunter were cuddled up like a married couple.

   Cam just shook his head and decided that it was just a hallucination.

   He couldn't bear the thought of going back to bed so he clambered out and headed for the bathroom. He could always grab a shower before anyone else was awake.

   As he searched the mini-room for a razor his mind wandered. They knew they were in Angel Grove, – wherever that was – in 1995. Judging by the room temperature it was also probably winter or autumn, or they were in Canada. Cam sighed. It was going to be a bugger figuring out how to get home if they were thousands of miles away from Blue Bay Harbour. Just like in scientific experiments – change only one variable.

   He blinked. A scientific experiment that could send them back to 2003 and Blue Bay, even further into the past or possibly blow up space-time continuum as they knew it.

   And to top it all off, they didn't even have razors in hotel rooms here.

   Cam sighed. "Fan-bloody-tastic," he muttered.

   And to think it was only five-ten in the morning. This day was not starting off well.

  
  


   The tiny refrigerator started whirring at the same time a door down the hall slammed. Dustin was blinking awake then, the room still faintly blurry before he wiped sleep from his eyes.

   "I was wondering whether either of you would wake up at all today," an unamused voice said from the foot of their bed.

   Dustin simply groaned and dropped his head to his pillow…which was moving. He might not have had the brains of Cam, but he knew that pillows didn't usually move. He slowly raised his head and turned suspiciously, before dropping again when he took in Hunter's gently rising chest. "What time is it?" he mumbled into the fabric of Hunter's shirt.

   "I'm assuming you're asking the time," Cam's voice said again. "It's past eight."

   Hunter awoke with a snort, blinking as he took in a greying ceiling. He winked hard a few times attempting to regain the senses dulled by sleep. "Hiya," he blinked at Cam.

   "Good morning. Would you like lunch in bed?" Cam asked, ever present sarcasm dripping as he surveyed the rumpled duo in the bed. Having had nearly three hours to take in the rather novel sight of Hunter and Dustin snuggled up like puppies, he didn't comment on exactly how…together, for lack of a better word, they looked.

   Hunter rolled over, throwing an arm over Dustin's chest. "Mebbe layder," he muttered sleepily.

   Dustin nodded absently, smoothing the light hair just above his shoulder.

   Cam rolled his eyes at the lazy pair. 'Pssh.'

   Then again, they had been awake for what probably equated to about an hour. That was if Hunter had done what he was supposed to do last night – wake up Dustin every couple of hours. Cam shrugged. If he had they could have a sleep in. If they didn't…Hunter would need all the rest he could to face up to the lecture he was going to get.

   As he started folding his own blankets from the night before he faintly realised Hunter had gone back to sleep easily, but Dustin was still awake and watching him.

   "What?"

   Dustin attempted to shrug before he realised that he would probably wake up Hunter. He settled for a slight movement of one shoulder that Cam took as a normal shrug.

   "Just kinda figured you'd say something."

   Cam raised an eyebrow. "About…"

   "Me and Hunter." Dustin wriggled slightly, but Cam couldn't tell whether or not it was to move into or away from the Crimson Ranger.

   "As in how you look so cute together?" he asked sarcastically.

   Dustin looked puzzled.

   Cam sighed. "What exactly is 'you and Hunter'? Are you together or do you just look like it?"

   "The first one."

   "I didn't know so I didn't say anything."

   "And now you know?" Dustin pressed.

   Cam rolled his eyes. "Does Blake know about you two?"

   "I dunno."

   "Shane? Tori?"

   "Not from me, dude."

   "As long as I'm not the last to know." Cam opened the door to the mini-closet and stashed his now-folded blanket before turning to see Dustin watching him. "What?"

   "You're not, like, mad?"

   "Why would I be mad?"

   Dustin bit his lip, and buried his face back into Hunter's shoulder. Cam took that as the end to the conversation, and returned to folding sheets.

   "You met my dad," he heard Dustin say quietly. Cam still continued folding the sheets but did it robotically, hearing a note in Dustin's voice that he had never heard before. "He and my mom divorced when I was eight. Mom got a girlfriend about a year ago and Dad's been ape ever since." Cam stopped folding when he heard a muted sob from the bed. He bit his own lip and debated the best way to react when he heard Dustin's voice again. "I told him a week ago that I liked another guy, and he pretty much disowned me."

   Cam was uncharacteristically silent as he tried to figure out how to respond. All the computers in the world couldn't give him a good reply to any of that. He sighed and threw himself onto the couch and stared at the roof. In the dreary grey tile he suddenly found an answer.

   "I never suspected that you and Hunter were together. Going back I can see a lot of little things – like how he stayed behind with that whole Marah thing. But even then I could tell you both were unbreakable, that neither of you would give up your friendship for anything." Cam turned a little so he was looking at the bed, and he could just see a pair of brown eyes looking back at him. "I envied that so much. And it wasn't even so much that you guys were such good friends, it was just that I wanted something constant like that for me. Someone that would always be there." Cam gave a soft smile, which seemed a little strange on a face that usually was home to a smirk or exasperation. "And I can tell that no matter what happened with your dad, Hunter'll always be there for you. Not even needing to mention the other Rangers."

   "And you?"

   Dustin sounded a little unsure of himself, like he was wondering why he was asking, while still managing to have that little note of childlike trust. Cam nodded. "And me."

   He heard Dustin sigh, and wriggle around a little.

   "Thanks, Cam."

   "No problem, Dustin."


	3. in the fight scene

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove. 

Timeline: Just after The Wild Wipeout, just after Stop the Hate Master.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. I would like to own everything though, but then Power Rangers wouldn't be rated G/PG.

Warning: there is slash in here. If you don't know what that is, it is a homosexual relationship. To be precise, two. Possibly three, I haven't thought ahead quite that far.

Pairings as determined by me: Adam/Rocky, Hunter/Dustin, Cam/?

Note: Fanfiction.net is screwing up my formatting – apologies. It may or may not come out right.

  
  
  
  
  
   Hunter yawned again as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. "Remind me again why we couldn't sleep for another few hours?"

   " 'Cause I was getting bored," Dustin grinned.

   Cam rolled his eyes. "God forbid."

   Dustin simply stuck his tongue out before bouncing even further ahead. Mindless of any people around, he twirled around and around until Cam and Hunter caught up. 

   "I can't hit him, he's got a concussion," Hunter started chanting. 

   Dustin only grinned mischievously before wriggling his way into Hunter's side. "It's cold, dude," he explained when he received a look from Cam. The Green Ranger just shook his head and decided to leave the two lovebirds alone – if only for the fact that they had the money. They had left what little stuff they had back at the hotel, and were now searching the town for anything remotely resembling work, as they only had enough money for another two nights at the hotel, assuming that they could live on what little food Cam's futuristic money would get them. That was a big assumption.

   "Hold up," he said suddenly. Hunter and Dustin both stopped, both wearing near-identical bemused expressions.

   Cam changed course to stand in front of an electronics store. Dustin suddenly changed expressions from bemused to understanding. "Dude, yeah it'd be great if you got work here, but like-"

   "The TV, Dustin, not the store," Cam corrected impatiently.

   Dustin's eyes grew wide. "Oh, dude!"

   Hunter's eyes in turn narrowed. "We check it out?" he asked abruptly.

   "That's what we do, ain't it?" Dustin shrugged.

   "Let's go," Cam ordered.

   Moments later, only three distant figures running gave any clue of former spectators. Not even many more seconds later, there was nothing but a few sparks of light bouncing around to indicate anything or anyone being present.

   The screen continued to show the Power Rangers fighting the monster of the day.  
  
  
  
   Hunter and Cam stared down from where they were standing; a hill, conveniently placed maybe a hundred or so yards from the Rangers' fight.

   Dustin was crouching a few feet away. He was staring intently as the six distant figures danced around, occasionally darting in to attack a larger figure before jumping back.

   The Crimson Thunder Ranger stepped back a little in shock as the black figure disappeared into the ground. "They know your Earth Ninja skills?" Hunter asked in disbelief.

   Dustin stood, walking back several paces until he stood next to Cam and Hunter. "They're not like mine, dudes," he noted. When he got two confused looks he pointed. "See? He just…like, disappears into the ground. There's a bang when I do it." He whistled as the red-cloaked figure sprang up a nearby tree before jumping onto the monster.

   Cam had been quiet, silently checking out and evaluating six different fighting styles, six lots of strengths and six lots of weaknesses. Hunter turned to him then. "So what's the prognosis, Doogie Howser?"

   "Ha," Cam said dryly. "They're good. Most very good."

   Hunter nodded. "Even I know that." He cocked his head to his other side. "Even Dustin knows that."

   He folded to the ground, holding his midsection. "Ow!"

   Dustin shook out his arm and elbow. "Ditto."

   Hunter groaned and fell to a kneel, mocking pain. "Ouch, dude, very ouch."

   Cam just rolled his eyes and turned back to the seven beings fighting. "Can't you go two days without hurting each other?"

   "Nope," Dustin smiled, helping Hunter back to his feet. "You okay, man?"

   "Never better," Hunter smiled back, grabbing for Dustin's ribs.

   "No! Not the ribs! Anything but the ribs!" Dustin protested before he was nearly screeching.

   Cam rolled his eyes again and stepped away from the tickle fight that was now raging beside him. "Juvenile," he muttered, scrutinising the fact that the six figures had managed to defeat the ugly-looking thing. "Guys!" he warned.

   Dustin popped up, the fight evident in his now-dirty hair and ruffled demeanour. The Samurai Ranger took one look at him and shook his head. Dustin even managed to make their training uniform look untidy. The Yellow Ranger drew Hunter up into a quick kiss.

   "PDA!" Cam groaned, covering his eyes.

   Hunter gave him a suspicious look. "Now I know you're really CyberCam."

   "Uh, guys?" Dustin managed, looking over Hunter's shoulder. "Six, twelve o'clock."

   With one glance, all three Rangers took in the six figures coming towards them.

   "No confrontation yet," Hunter said sharply. When both Cam and Dustin looked at him strangely he shrugged sheepishly. "You learn a lot being an evil Ranger, dudes."

   "Don't call me dude, Hunter," Cam muttered as they all turned.  
  
  
  
   Rocky whooped as the monster of the day – nicknamed 'Stupid' by both Billy and Kim – exploded into a momentary shower of fireworks. He had always wondered why they did that; though Billy had explained it once. Something about sodium and random water molecules plus some other gas he couldn't pronounce. Or something. It was rare that the monsters actually got defeated in their current state, Rocky reflected as he glanced down at his red cloth suit, but it wasn't exactly unheard of. Maybe Rita was having an off day.

   He turned, about to demorph, when he noticed something strange about a distant hill. Rocky squinted, throwing an arm out to the nearest person. That person just happened to be Tommy, who threw him a sharp glance through the hood of his Ninjetti suit.

   "What?" Tommy asked.

   Rocky noticed Aisha about to demorph and moved quickly to explain. "Guys watching us," he nodded.

   Billy stared, Ninjetti senses already zeroing in on the hill. "Three, all male…I think," he reported. His eyes creased. "Something's blocking my sight." He turned to Tommy. "That's impossible without Ranger technology."

   "We check 'em out?" Kim asked chirpily. Rocky felt like smacking her; even _his_ adrenaline rush was wearing off.

   "Yeah we check them out," Tommy agreed. They started picking their way through the trees and rougher scrub of the hill. 

   "They're on the move," Billy said sharply.

   "Circle them!" Tommy ordered quickly. Immediately the six split up.  
  
  
  
   Hunter hesitated midstep. Cam sent him a curious look, but also halted in his tracks.

   "What's the matter, Hunt?"

   The Crimson Ranger frowned, lightly turning on his heel a few degrees. "Just…" he trailed.

   He suddenly leapt forward to grab something and roll.

   That 'something' turned out to be a white-draped figure, who rolled out of Hunter's grip and twisted into a defensive stance. 

   "So much for no confrontation!" Dustin deadpanned, dropping easily to present a smaller target.

   Hunter quickly surveyed the man in front of him. Big, quick, light on his feet. "What the heck do you want?" the white figure demanded.

   Hunter's hackles rose. He didn't like demands. "To be left alone!"

   "Not gonna happen!" the white yelled out. "We're not gonna let you destroy the city!"

   The Crimson Ranger blinked. "Alrighty. Haven't heard that one in a while."

   Hunter felt something fizzle into existence near his left side, and he sprang back just as a bright-coloured missile flew at him. "Oh geez," he muttered. "Next time we streak out," he called back to Cam and Dustin.

   "Agreed," Dustin called back. "Um, could we offer a truce?"

   Cam surveyed the six now circling them. "I doubt it."

   "Back off!" Hunter roared at the ever-closing circle of people.

   "Babe, that didn't work with dead ninjas," Dustin pointed out. "Why would it work here?"

   The six circled them hungrily, like vultures stalking a body.

   "No offence dude, but this is _so_ déjà vu," Dustin confessed to Hunter in a low whisper as the three stood in a rough defensive circle.

   Hunter's face was tense as he surveyed the two remaining in his sight. His eyes instinctively wanted to skip over their faces, but he forced himself to stare into the space between headscarf and facecloth.

   He saw…nothing.

   Not like nothing-nothing, just a sense that something was there, he just wasn't seeing it. Like what had been on the other Thunder Ninjas' faces before he had met them back at the Academy.

   "Why don't they have any eyes?" Dustin muttered uneasily as he turned to keep the red and black ones in his gaze.

   Hunter beat Cam to the answer. "Unless they power down in front of us or tell us their names, we can't see their faces. It's a ninja skill, Dustin."

   Cam added, "It works with us too." He briefly patted his training suit. "They can see the suits, and probably your hair colour, but you're just a shifting face."

   "Spooky, man," Dustin muttered. "I'm a shifting face."

   There was a few moments of tense silence before, as if on cue, all six leapt forward – white and yellow going for Hunter, pink and red lunging at Dustin, and Cam just missed getting a limb removed by the black and blue.    
  
  
   Hunter was very annoyed. If it wasn't bad enough that he was accused of being evil, these two were attempting tricks learnt on nearly his first day at the academy. He had to duck quickly as a kick whistled over his head before throwing himself backward as the woman aimed a knee somewhere near his head. But no, he wasn't questioning their fighting styles, not at all. They were friggin' good.

   He again had to throw his body backwards as the man launched a spin kick to his head. Oh yeah – they were good.

  
  
   Dustin smiled quickly again as the one in pink flew at him. He only laughed in her face as he disappeared into the ground, a loud _crack_ serving to draw attention to where he was – a point that favoured Hunter and Cam heavily.

   He waited in the warm cocoon of the earth for a few seconds before he reached up and out of the ground and grabbed her ankle. She went down hard and he materialized again in front of the red figure. He had barely enough to time to block a kick and send one of his own before he flung himself back into the earth with a bang.

  
  
   Cam had to admit it – he was enjoying this. There was rarely any real hand-to-hand combat with any of Lothor's goons. In fact the last good spar he had had outside of the other Rangers was with his father – literally near twenty years ago.  He grunted as he deflected a blow that would have gotten a kill point in any major competition. The guy hissed at him slightly as they stared face-to-face. "Why don't you ever learn?" the guy muttered. 

   Cam slipped himself neatly between him and the other man coming in to attack. "We don't learn what, exactly?" he asked rhetorically, using his leverage to push Talkative Guy into Other Fighting Guy.

   "That evil never pays!"

   Cam got slammed to the ground as he froze in disbelief.  
  
  
  
   Dustin and Hunter both stopped immediately when they heard Cam. "Thunder and Wind Rangers! Regroup!"

   Hunter flipped back over himself several times and landed just to the side of Cam. Dustin was unlucky, and was intercepted just before he reached them both. He was slammed hard into a nearby tree, and he cried out loud in pain as his head connected with the unforgiving trunk. Hunter reacted on instinct, and launched himself at the unfortunate person who had ambushed Dustin – who just happened to be the white one. 

   "Let him go," Hunter growled.

   The white man had no choice, being that if he had refused Hunter the two hands clasped around his throat would have tightened and he would have stood a likely chance of suffocating to death.

   Dustin stumbled over to Cam's side. "You okay, Dust?" Cam asked softly, still staring at the opposing figures. And Hunter.

   The Yellow Ranger stood shakily. "I'm fine," he muttered. "As long as I don't have fur, I'm fine."

   "Crimson!" Cam yelled. Dustin was confused for an instant before he remembered the conversation earlier – for sake of saving their identity, Hunter's real name couldn't be used.

   Hunter slowly released the chokehold he had on White, but pinned him with a hard stare. In less than a second he had flipped back, missing a collision between White's chin and his foot by an inch. He came down at Dustin's side, and immediately starting checking him out again.

   "I'm fine, love," Dustin said, pushing Hunter's hand away weakly.

   Hunter's eyes widened. "Say that again."

   "Say what, love?"

   Hunter turned to Cam. "He's fucked again."

   Cam winced. "I don't want to know the particulars of your relationship."

   "No, I mean that son of a mother fucker just made Dustin's concussion worse."

   Cam swore under his breath. In some faraway place in his mind, Dustin smiled at the fact that a little head injury could get the two of them so riled up that they would swear. And all over little ol' him. He felt all kinds of special.

   Dustin stumbled again, and Hunter just barely caught him and was able to lower him to the ground. Dustin smiled at him feebly as they both kneeled. Cam stepped in front of them, offering the couple both privacy and protection.

"I's funny," Dustin mumbled. "When I get banged up I feel like dancing around you with flowers and racing Cam on his computer. Feels like I should be dumber or sumt'in."

   Hunter worriedly stroked the curls out of Dustin's face, not knowing what to do.

   "Calm down, love," Dustin grinned. "You act like 'm dying."

   The Crimson Ranger checked Dustin's eyes again. Dustin blinked a few times, trying to focus in on Hunter's face. He raised a hand and ran it down the side of Hunter's cheek.

   "Don't say anything even resembling you dying," Hunter scolded softly.

   Dustin chuckled, before clasping Hunter's hand. "Help me up," he said softly. He barred the protests from Hunter in a second as he flicked a finger over his lips. "Stay strong in front of the enemy, remember?"

   "I never taught you that."

   Dustin shrugged as he was levered to his feet. "Maybe that was Blake."

   "No, that was me," Cam sighed beside them. Hunter glanced over at him for the first time.

   The Yellow Wind Ranger blinked at the five figures in front of him. They all seemed a little uncertain, like they didn't want to attack while Dustin was down.

   "Honor among the wicked," Cam mumbled.

   Hunter guided Dustin's hand to Cam's shoulder which he used for support. He abruptly started to walk forward until he was nose-to-nose with the white figure.

   Mindless of the five other opposing figures, Hunter didn't back down. "You hurt him."

   The man in white said nothing, only glanced over Hunter's shoulder to take in the picture that Dustin and Cam made.

   "The next time we meet, I will rip your eyelids from your head. I will remove your ability to one day have children if you even think about touching him again." Hunter stepped even closer until his mouth was next to White's ear. "I will make you feel so much pain you will beg me to kill you before I even get halfway done with you."

   "We'll stop you," a quiet female voice said.

   Hunter's gaze only flickered to the pink figure before he looked back at White. "You'll try," he allowed.

   "Enough, Crimson," Cam's voice said quietly. "Yellow needs you."

   Hunter shared one last look with White before turning and walking back to Dustin and Cam. "You okay?" he asked then, directing his question to Cam.

   "I'm fine."

   Dustin leaned his head against Hunter's shoulder. "Can we go now, please?" he asked, sounding like a little boy.

   Hunter smiled down at him reassuringly. "Sure thing."

   Cam was left to growl in the wake of their combined Ninja Streak. He turned and started walking, his ranting even heard by the other Ranger team. "Just had to be them, didn't it? Two annoyingly romantic goofs that stuff things up by brooding too much and playing around too long. Maybe it'll just be me going back, get back to Dad and the others-" 

   At that point he flickered away in green light.

   The team could only blink.  
  



	4. in the search for jobs

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove. 

Timeline: Just after The Wild Wipeout, just after Stop the Hate Master.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. I would like to own everything though, but then Power Rangers wouldn't be rated G/PG.

Warning: there is slash in here. If you don't know what that is, it is a homosexual relationship. To be precise, two. Possibly three, I haven't thought ahead quite that far.

Pairings as determined by me: Adam/Rocky, Hunter/Dustin, Cam/?

Note: Cookies to anyone who finds the reference to The Wild Wipeout. Please excuse the really badly-translated Spanish.  
  
  
  


   Cam studied the building in front of them suspiciously. "The Youth Centre."

   "Sounds like an after school special, doesn't it?" Hunter scoffed.

   The Samurai Ranger nodded.

   Hunter sighed. "Look how low we've become." Hunter started walking, head low. 

   "It's just until we figure a way back," Cam reasoned. "And lord knows Dustin can't work in the state he's in."

   "But it's so bright and…perky!" Hunter protested, motioning towards a couple of girls giggling in front of them. "I hate places like this!"

   Cam shrugged. "Suck it up, bug boy."

   Hunter stopped while Cam kept walking. "Did you, like, get replaced by CyberCam?"

   "Yo," Cam drawled.

   "That's just disturbing, bro."

   "Don't call me bro."

   Hunter grinned and slung his arm around Cam's shoulders. "But yer me bro, bro!" he protested, overemphasising an accent faintly resembling Dustin's.

   "Get the hell off me, or I get to tell Blake he's an only child," Cam said sweetly. Hunter only grinned and lifted his arm as they entered what seemed to be a diner with half a gym.

   They both blinked. This was not exactly what they were expecting.

   Hunter gazed around and he nearly began to drool at the look of the mats laid out near a pile of weights. "I revoke my former opinion and advise a positive decision for this place."

   Cam only shuddered. "Please don't talk like me. It's disturbing."

   "But I do it so well," Hunter grinned as they headed for the bar.

   "I suppose you're preferable over Dustin doing that." Cam blinked away a sudden strange image of Dustin spinning around in the computer swivel chair and informing them that a new weapon was ready.

   Hunter had nearly the same picture, although in his Cam was suddenly using worse vocab than CyberCam.

   Both shuddered slightly and vowed to never think of that again. 

   Hunter pushed Cam forward slightly. "Hey," the Samurai Ranger protested. "What's the big idea?"

   The Crimson Ranger looked back at him like he was a little nutty upstairs. "You're the one that adults love," he pointed out. "I'm probably just stare at him and freak him out."

   "Or brood him to death," Cam muttered under his breath.

   "Excuse me?" Hunter asked threateningly, raising a hand as if to slap him upside the head.

   "Hey," the rather rotund man behind the counter grinned, wiping down the counter and saving Cam just in time. "How can I help you?"

   Cam forced a shy smile on his face. Adults always seemed to fall for that.

   "Hi," he began. "My friends and I are just passing through town, but we've run out of money." He bit his lip and played the embarrassment card. "I was wondering if you'd know of any jobs around here that a couple of guys could do for a while to get some cash?"

   He felt instinctively that Hunter was turning in mock-appreciation of the equipment splayed around, when really he was, rather unsuccessfully, trying to smother a laugh.

   "Well…" The guy looked uncertain. "You two look like strong boys." He frowned slightly. "How many of you were there?"

   "Three, but Dustin's sick – he wouldn't be able to work for a couple of days."

   "I've got a couple of jobs out back I need someone to do." The man jerked his thumb towards the back room. "I've been doin' it all on my own since my help went overseas."

   Cam let a slightly uncertain, disbelieving look weave across his expression. "You serious?"

   "As a heart attack."  The guy surveyed them both. "You'd get eight bucks an hour, overtime pay ten bucks, and hours are pretty flexible. Plus you can take home whatever food you want. You in?"

   Cam turned back to Hunter. "We in?"

   Hunter nodded. "You're probably gonna regret the food promise," he warned. "Dustin eats anything and everything."

   The man shrugged. "If I can deal with Rocky, I can deal with anyone."

   Cam blinked.  Who exactly was Rocky?

   The man was extending his hand out to them. "I'm Ernie."

   "I'm Cam, and this is Hunter."

   Ernie nodded as he indicated the side of the counter. "C'mon in and I'll show you what you're doing."  
  
     
  


   Hunter locked eyes with Cam. "You ready?"

   "Question is, are you ready?"

   "I'm always ready."

   "On three? One…two…"

   "Three!"

   "Ow!"

   "Don't strain yourself, dude."

   "Don't call me dude!"

   Hunter smirked at him over the box containing what was apparently a new gymnastics springboard. "I suppose being locked up in Ninja Ops for so long doesn't give you much time in the gym, eh?" he mocked.

   Cam simply growled over the cardboard.

   "Steps," Hunter said in warning as he suddenly dipped below Cam's eyesight.

   "Person," Cam nodded, just as Hunter collided with someone.

   "Sorry dude," Hunter said over his shoulder.

   "No problem."

   The voice was slightly familiar to the Crimson Ranger, and he racked his brain for the reason why…when it suddenly found him.

   "Parecemos correr a uno al otro mucho," he commented. 

   The man gave a double-take, before shrugging. "Bueno ver usted."

   Hunter gave a rather fake smile in return before he and the box started moving again, forcing Cam to hasten his steps a little. As soon as the guy was out of earshot, Cam asked casually, "So who was that?"

   "One of the guys who first found Dustin – and as I found out the hard way, has a mean high right kick."

   Cam rolled his eyes at his friend over the top of the box. "Is there any situation around you that doesn't turn to violence?"

   Hunter grinned back. "Only something Dustin should know about."

   "Too much information there, Hunter."  
  
  
  
   "So who was that?" Adam questioned, coming up to Rocky and placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

   Rocky scowled slightly after the two disappearing men. "Remember Dustin, and the Spanish guy who said he didn't see him?"

   How could he forget – Rocky had only been a few more meetings away from being married to the Dustin bloke.

   "Vaguely," Adam deliberately understated, a few remaining touches of anger flickering as he remembered Dustin.

   Rocky indicated the moving box. "Meet him again. Ernie probably gave him a job."

   "Why would Ernie give him a job if he canno speeka no Engleesh?" Adam asked, frowning a little as one of the things nagging at him suddenly made sense. "He doesn't look very Spanish to me," he then pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest.

   "I suppose not," Rocky said, slightly confused on the signals Adam was sending out. He looked angry, almost as if someone had made some kind of personal attack on him. "You right there, man?"

   Adam blinked as he saw Rocky turn those beautiful, chocolate-brown eyes - _No!_ he mentally chided himself. 

   "I'm fine," he replied a little too quickly.

   Rocky let his eyes follow Adam in confusion as his old friend stalked away to 'their' table.

   _Guy's just a little uptight,_ Rocky reasoned. _That other Ranger, not to mention those three ninja-type-dudes yesterday were kinda freaky._ 

   He followed Adam, not paying any more attention to Hunter.  
  
  
  


   Dustin was less than impressed at being left in the hotel room for five hours – especially after being told that he one, couldn't fall asleep, and two, couldn't go out of the room 'under pain of never sleeping with me again' as Hunter had threatened.

   As a normal, hormone-guided teenage boy who had no thoughts whatsoever of being with anyone else besides Hunter for the rest of his life, he decided for his own happiness – even if it was going to be future happiness – he would stay in the hotel room.

   He had spent about ten minutes thoroughly exploring the apartment, discovering that although there were no razors, there were several small cans of what professed to be shaving cream. The linen closet was well stocked with blankets and towels and everything in between, and the refrigerator/freezer unit was empty, except for a few stray ice cubes and half a Sprite Cam had splurged on last night.

   For the remaining four hours and fifty minutes, Dustin was bored stiff.

   He was about to scream when finally Cam and Hunter opened the door and trudged inside.

   "About time," Dustin huffed uncharacteristically. "I've been going nuts all day."

   Hunter made a sympathetic noise, while Cam simply rolled his eyes. "Did you fall asleep?" Cam asked, plopping himself down on the couch.

   "No," Dustin scowled.

   Cam made a sound which resembled a laugh mixed with a cough. "Poor baby, being cooped up all day," he deadpanned. He nonchalantly checked his watch, which was still running on 'home' time. "If things haven't gone blurry or anything you could probably sleep again tonight. But Hunter has to wake you up again."

   "Fun!" Dustin exclaimed in yet another burst of uncharacteristic anger, falling back on the bed.

   Hunter frowned, noting Dustin's odd behaviour quickly before deciding what exactly to do. He sat down softly on the bed next to his boyfriend, making sure the bed didn't move at all until he was settled all the way down to lie next to Dustin.

   "We got us jobs," he offered quietly, propping his head up and staring at Dustin's closed eyelids.

   "Whoop-dee-doo," Dustin muttered under his breath. He rolled away to face the wall.

   Hunter bit his lip, reaching out to lightly pull at and play with Dustin's short bangs. He twisted the brown curls around his fingers, before feeling Dustin sigh.

   " 'm sorry," Dustin muttered. "I've just spent hours thinking about home, and Tori and Shane, and Blake and Kelly and Sensei…" He rolled back over, coming nose-to-nose with Hunter. "I miss them already," he confessed in a low whisper.

   "So do I," Hunter murmured back.

   "I keep thinking about how we're supposed to go home, and that we never got to tell Shane or anyone about us coming here. They'll think we just disappeared, or got killed or captured by Lothor, and they'll never know if we don't go back. And we don't know how time is there – maybe every day here is like a decade over there!" Dustin's eyes widened at the new thought. "Blake and Tori could be married! Tomorrow you'll be an uncle! In a couple of days they'll have died of old age!"

   Hunter tried valiantly to stop the rambling, but only finding that putting a finger near Dustin's face when he was talking was a good way to lose a digit, he was nearly out of ideas.

   So when Dustin finally did shut up, Cam looked over in surprise.

   Only to find the two making out like the teenagers their IDs said they were.

   "Get a room," Cam muttered under his breath, forcing himself to stare out the window and not at the kissing couple on the bed.

   Yet surprisingly enough Dustin had brought up a good point. How were they supposed to get home? Could they even pinpoint somewhere to go back to, or would they need to just grin and cross their fingers? Cam knew he was good, damn good. But with the limited funds they had – needing to pay for food, boarding, everyday little necessities – they would all add up. And even with this new, decent paying job they'd be lucky to have half the equipment they'd need in a year. Plus trying to negotiate space and time without a dedicated server and a hell of a lot of power wouldn't accomplish much. If any of it went wrong there'd be a good chance space continuum would collapse on itself if there was even the smallest margin of error and somewhere they ran into their past selves.

   Thank god when he'd gone back in time with the scroll he hadn't yet been born. Not only with the freaky aspects of seeing himself from the future, but the fact that probably ninety percent of all theories he'd ever read on time travel had predicted that a past and present, or present and future doubles running into each other would pretty much ensure the fact that there'd be no more people to write any more theories on time travel.

   Jeez. Even *his* head was starting to hurt.

   There was a loud _thump_ behind him as the Yellow Earth and Crimson Thunder Rangers fell off the bed.  
  
  
  


   "So could you tell who they were, Zordon?" Tommy asked.

   Zordon shook his head. "They have masking skills nearly identical to your own, Rangers. It would be near impossible to discover their identities without them first deciding to unmask themselves to you."

   "How is that possible?" Billy questioned. "How could they duplicate Ranger technology like that?"

   "It's not a Ranger skill – it is a part of your Ninjetti power. A ninja skill."

   "So they went to Phaedos and got the Great Power?" Kim asked skeptically.

   "I do not sense the Great Power energies around them. They draw power from a different source." Zordon, had he a body, would probably have shrugged somewhere in that sentence.

   "So we've got three bad ninjas, an evil Ranger haunting Rocko and Adam, and we don't know jack about either of them." Tommy raised an eyebrow. "I don't like that."

   "Neither do the haunt-ees," Rocky added, motioning towards himself and Adam. "Are you sure this guy didn't come up on your scans, Zordon?"

   "I am positive, Rocky. Neither did the other young man you were asking about."

   Adam glowered for a moment at the mention of Dustin, before he carefully schooled his expression back to neutrality. "Could the two be related?" he questioned before he could stop himself.

   Zordon was silent for a moment. "I shall research more on these new enemies of yours, Rangers." Adam noticed that his question had gone unanswered. "For now you must return to your daily lives."

   "You up for a good session at Ernie's?" Tommy asked Rocky just before they teleported.

   "Aren't I always?"

   Rocky briefly wondered at the look he received from Adam, before shoving it to the back of his mind with a shrug.


	5. in the first working day

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove. 

Timeline: Just after The Wild Wipeout, just after Stop the Hate Master.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. This is my own twisted little world, wherein there is much boy-on-boy-lovin' and two hetrosexual pairs. Cool, eh? 

Note: FF.net is being a bonehead of a site, so formatting is a little strange. Bear with me – next time I put up a chapter I'll resubmit this one in proper format.

Warning: there is slash in here. If you don't know what that is, it is a homosexual relationship. To be precise, two. Possibly three, I haven't thought ahead quite that far.

Pairings as determined by me: Adam/Rocky, Hunter/Dustin, Cam/?

  
  
~-~  
  
~-~

After introducing Dustin and their new boss, Hunter and Cam went to work while Dustin began the grand tour. This time it was less a labouring job as it was a plain old boring job – serving occasional tables and taking orders.

   Hard to believe it had been three and a half days since they'd been transported here – it seemed like only yesterday they'd been trying to solve their money troubles. Cam had helped with their little problem by working out a schedule with Ernie – Hunter and Cam would get paid every day and Dustin every week. Sounded more confusing than it actually was, considering they were getting paid in cash and Ernie was more than happy to skip the whole depositing-to-bank dealings. This way, Cam's money would get most of their day-to-day stuff, Hunter's would get the remainder of the rent and any other things they may need, and Dustin's…well, hopefully they wouldn't be here to get too many of Dustin's. Call it payback on Ernie for not asking any big questions.

Hunter had been on careful lookout for the two guys he had met that first day and spoken only Spanish to – it wouldn't really do to have a Spanish speaker taking down an order in English. And at nearly noon, he saw Guy 1 come in with some other dude he'd never seen.

Fortunately, instead of sitting at a table, they headed for the mats at the back.

Hunter nudged Cam, who was nearest to him at the time. "Dude, I can't go out there anymore."

   Cam sent him an annoyed look before rearranging the plates on the tray Hunter had knocked. "Why would that be, may I ask?"

   "You may," Hunter replied absentmindedly. "And I would answer 'that guy's out there, and I can't speak English around him'."

   "You speak it perfectly fine around me," Cam pointed out. He frowned. "Except for those times you don't."

   "But duuuude!" Hunter mocked. "Seriously. He thinks I only speak Spanish."

   "But then what would you be doing serving in a…" Cam trailed off. "Never mind."

   "Dustin can't go out there either," Hunter reminded him.

   It took a few seconds, but Cam slowly turned to look at him. "So you're saying both of you have to stay in here-" he indicated the back of the miniature café, where it was mostly cooking utensils, "-and do nothing, while I serve every table out there?"

   Hunter shrugged, again nearly knocking the tray off the bench. "Lucky you."

   Cam simply growled at him before taking out the tray that had been precariously tipped at Hunter's shrug.  
  


~-~

~-~  
  
  


   Cam hadn't been serving alone for long before there was a lull in the people coming up to the bar and orders needing to be filled. He took the opportunity to survey the various sports going on a few yards away – most particularly most of the sparring.

   There was a balance beam set up; with the springboard Cam and Hunter had carried out yesterday standing at one of the ends. He also noticed a number of weights and gym equipment in detail he hadn't been able to see earlier whilst they'd been busy.

   The thing that really drew his attention – as it had drawn Dustin's, and Hunter before him – was the sparring mats. Perhaps more specifically the people sparring on the mats. Both brunettes – one with short hair, and another with a ponytail reaching a little past his shoulders. They were fairly evenly matched – the one with the long hair had a tendency to showboat while oddly enough having little imagination, but the shorter haired one was a minor case of strength over skill. The only person Cam had ever seen who had properly managed to fight like that was a student that came to study at the Academy, one Danny Delgado; he hadn't necessarily given up technique but he most definitively relied a little more on strength. This guy hadn't either, but in a few cases his weakness was exploited when he lacked the proper technique behind some of his moves.

   "Oh yeah, they're good," Cam muttered under his breath.

   "That's Tommy and Rocky," a voice spoke up from beside him. 

   Cam swivelled his head quickly as he was startled. The guy on the other side of the counter a little further down smiled apologetically. "Sorry."

   "No problem."

   The guy nodded his head towards the two, who were slowly winding down. "The one with the ponytail is Tommy, and the other one's Rocky." He wiped his hand on his jeans before offering it to Cam. "The name's Billy."

   Accepting the hand, Cam shook it before absently wiping down the bench top. "Cam."

   "Are you new in town, by any chance?" Billy asked. "I don't think I've seen you around before."

   "Just passing through."

   "You here in Angel Grove on your own, or you travelling with family?"

   Cam had to think fast. "My two brothers dragged me along, in all truth. I doubt I'd be here if it wasn't for them." True, on all accounts, Cam reflected. If that alien beam hadn't hit Hunter and Dustin he wouldn't be in this dimension. And if Hunter and Dustin had never been around he'd be dead many times over.

   Cam let out a small self-mocking laugh. "They don't seem to like normalcy."

   Billy nodded. "I hear that – my friends aren't too fond of status quo either."

   Cam's eyes were drawn back to the two men, who were now walking up towards the counter, playfully throwing their towels back and forth.

   "I'll introduce you, if you want," Billy offered.

   Cam glanced uneasily over his shoulder to where he knew Hunter was attempting to burn a hole through the wall with his amazing glare powers. _Get to know the enemy,_ a voice that sounded disturbingly like his father echoed in his head. _What enemy?_ he asked rhetorically. _Only enemy around here are those other ninja people, and I don't see any of them around._

   "Hey," the shorter-haired brunette greeted, sliding easily onto the stool next to Billy.

   "Hey yourself," Billy returned. "Looking good."

   "Always are," the one Billy had called Tommy said confidently.

   Cam barely covered a snort. This guy sounded like a bad mix of Shane and Hunter – nearly too confident for his own good. Bold, italics, underscore, highlight on nearly.

   Billy turned a smile back to Cam. "This is Cam. Cam, this is Rocky and Tommy." He indicated the pair in turn, as if he hadn't already told Cam their names beforehand.

   "Nice to meet you," Rocky nodded.

   "Hi," Tommy grinned.

   Suddenly remembering what exactly he was being paid to do, Cam turned to motion at the room behind him. "Did you want a drink or anything after that little display?" he offered.

   "Nah, we're good thanks," Rocky smiled as he stole a water bottle from Tommy's hand.

   Cam grinned back. There was a few seconds of silence.

   "You new here?" Tommy questioned.

   "Yeah," Cam answered, again rubbing vaguely at the countertop. "Hopefully my brothers and I are just passing through. Ernie gave me a job here to pay the rent."

   "S'where you from originally?" Rocky asked, leaning on the counter and sipping at the water bottle.

   "Originally?" Cam asked, thinking quickly. "A city in China called Yinchuan." It wasn't a lie, at least not a big one. He had been born over there, but had moved back with his parents to the States as soon as his mother could travel. And his father and uncle – he could barely think of his uncle, banishing it from his memory as soon as he had thought it – had been raised there for a fair few years of their lives. And now if they wanted to go looking for his 'brothers', they would probably look for two more Chinese boys – instead of a born-and-bred Californian beach blonde and a brunette Brazilian. 

   "Really? So you can speak Chinese?" Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow. 

   "Not well," Cam hedged. "I moved early on."

   There was a sudden beeping noise, and glancing up through his eyelashes Cam saw the three exchange significant looks.

   "Hey, sorry Cam," Tommy apologised, grabbing the water bottle back from Rocky in an overtly casual move. "Rocky and I have a science project, and Billy here offered to help us with it."

   "No problem," Cam grinned back. He noticed a girl down the other end of the counter, waiting to be served, and quickly back-pedalled. "See you later."

   Billy waved over his shoulder as he exited. Cam watched his back until he disappeared around the corner.

   "I'll just be a second," he smiled at the girl, sticking his head through to the back room. "They're gone," he said, rolling his eyes.

   Hunter coughed slightly as he and Dustin separated. "Thanks, Cam."

   "Yeah, man, thanks," Dustin grinned as he exited past him.

   Cam stopped Hunter with a hand to the chest. "Don't you get enough make-out time at night in bed?" he asked, before turning and exiting.

   Hunter was left to sheepishly wipe his mouth and rearrange his shirt.  
  
~-~

~-~  
  


   "You know the first thing we should buy?" Dustin questioned.

   "What, babe?" Hunter replied, twirling his fingers lazily in Dustin's short brown curls.

   "A razor," Dustin said decisively.

   Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Any particular reason?"

   "Stubble burn," Dustin said meaningfully, running a palm over Hunter's chin.

   The blonde playfully snapped at his fingers. "But it looks so manly and handsome," he protested.

   "And is gonna give me a rash," pointed out Dustin. "Unless you just don't want me to kiss you any more?"

   "Cam!" Hunter called urgently into the kitchen. "We need a razor!"

   Cam poked his head around the wall separating the two 'rooms'. "I can hear you, you know," he stated dryly, indicating the fact that the kitchen itself was a foot and a half away from where the two were reclining on their bed.

   "You need one too, dude," Dustin said, intrigued. "You look like one of those mobster people with the whole tough, unshaven look."

   Cam sent him a look. Before disappearing behind the wall again, he self-consciously brushed the back of his hand against the stubble growing on his chin.

   Dustin laughed. "You look cool!" he yelled out.

   "Not as cool as I do, though, right?" Hunter asked, posturing where he lay.

   Dustin propped himself up on an elbow and studied him, considering. "Not really, dude," he said at last.

   Hunter gave the merest hint of a pout that had Dustin relenting. "Alright, alright…you look cute."

   "I don't like cute," objected Hunter. "Cute makes me think of kittens and Tori with puppy dog eyes."

   There was a 'ding' noise from behind them, and Cam reappeared to go into the bathroom. "Done, guys," he said as he re-emerged, throwing two clean shirts onto the bed.

   "This really blows, dude," Dustin commented, picking up his own off-yellow shirt and surveying it.

   Cam sighed as he dropped onto the couch. "I know it 'blows', Dustin, but we don't really have much choice. We don't have enough money to buy any new clothes – at least not for a while."

   "Why do you always have to be the smart one?" Dustin muttered.

   Cam raised an eyebrow. "Because neither you nor Hunter are decently equipped to be the smart one, as you put it."

   Dustin visibly deflated. "Oh yeah."

   "Don't feel bad, babe," Hunter said cheerfully. "We get to be dumb ones together!"

   Dustin lifted an eyebrow. "Wouldn't we be the dumb two, then?" he asked, perplexed.

   Cam settled himself in for watching a very strange half-argument. It beat anything else to do around here.


	6. in the middle

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Disclaimer: Power Rangers do not belong to me. Right now I'm not one hundred percent positive exactly whom they do belong to, so I'll just say it's not me.

Notes: This is the beginning of the beginning of the end of the middle. I have a clear idea in mind of how to continue, but feel free to offer suggestions or constructive criticism.

Warnings: Slash, meaning male upon male relationships.

* * *

Adam sighed, running a hand through his hair. He frowned at the black ends of his fringe clasped in his fingers.

"So what's up with you, Mr Grumpy-Butt?" Rocky asked sweetly, in what could pass as either an imitation or a gentle mockery of Aisha.

"Nothing, man," Adam said, inwardly wincing as his tone was close to a growl.

Rocky dropped his pen, not caring that it was slowly rolling off Adam's bed. He crossed his arms and dropped his elbows down to his knees. "Okay, right now I don't give a damn what you say. You've been acting strange for weeks - what's wrong?"

Adam exhaled, picking up Rocky's pen for him and depositing it slowly onto his friend's notebook.

The Red Ranger simply raised an eyebrow, not letting Adam off the hook.

It took a few more moments, but Adam took a deep breath, falling back onto his bed from his cross-legged position.

"How long have we been friends?" Adam asked, staring at the roof.

Rocky shrugged. "In days, months or years?" When Adam only raised his head to give him a blank look, he grinned sheepishly, giving up the joke. "Nine years? Give or take a month or two."

"Would you hate me for something I did?"

Rocky had picked up his pen, but dropped it again when Adam's question floated over his chest to Rocky's ears. "Of course not!" Rocky exclaimed, almost before Adam had finished his question. The question sunk in slowly, and Rocky reiterated. "I would never hate you."

Adam sat up quickly, only Rocky's lightning reflexes stopping them from butting heads. They stared eye-to-eye; Rocky still slightly confused but determined, Adam with some unidentifiable emotion on his face.

"You promise?"

It was hard for Rocky to stop himself rolling his eyes. "Of course I…" He sighed in a mixture of amusement and aggravation. "I promise I will not hate you."

It was one deep breath later that Adam finally nodded his head, and closed his eyes. He hesitated, wetting his lower lip.

"I'm not…" he started. "You…" He frowned at himself, shaking his head.

"Deep breath, and blurt it out," Rocky coached in nearly a teasing tone.

"You want the long version or the short version?" Adam tried to smile, looking up at Rocky through his eyelashes.

"Try the short one first."

It was a few seconds later that Adam looked Rocky straight in the eyes, knowing that his first, true reaction would be in his eyes.

"I'm gay."

Rocky's eyes initially flashed, mostly in surprise and a little shock. "I wasn't expecting that," he managed after a couple of moments.

Adam gave a little shrug, dropping his eyes from Rocky's. "Neither was I."

Silence seemed to be the order of the day as it reigned again for a few more minutes.

'That was…unexpected,' Rocky thought to himself, repeating the same thought he'd just said out loud. It wasn't like Adam had ever been really into females. Rocky wasn't sure exactly how he felt about it. A little hurt, to be honest. If Adam had had this feeling for a while Rocky would have expected this talk some time ago. He thought they were close enough that Adam would tell him at once, as soon as he felt some stirrings like that. But the whole gay thing…that was…yeah. He was all mixed up about that.

Lost in his own thoughts, it took a while for Rocky to notice Adam staring fixedly at a non-existent spot on the blanket. He suddenly did notice, and immediately felt bad.

He stood up, and then sat down again, this time next to Adam who was still staring at the one spot. "Hey," he said quietly. "This doesn't change anything." It wouldn't, Rocky promised himself, and Adam, silently.

Adam didn't even look up. "I'm sure it won't," he muttered derisively.

Rocky smiled slightly despite himself. "Well, maybe there'll be less checking out girls in the park, at least for you. Although I suppose you can check out the guys while I check out the girls."

Adam felt a smile twinge his lips, despite his inner mix of feelings. 'But what if I don't want to check out the other guys?' Adam asked himself, as Rocky stood up and returned to his homework.

'What if I want you, Rocky?'

* * *

It had now been a week, Hunter reflected.

Seven days.

Seven long, cold days that Cam, Dustin and himself had been in Angel Grove, eight years into the past and who knows how far away. Seven days of working as much as possible at the Youth Centre, trying to earn enough money to keep on living. Cam had advised them against any kind of drastic movement away from the city, as he had guessed that there may be a slight chance of them 'rebounding' back into their own time, back to Blue Bay. Like an elastic band. Cam had made it sound a lot more complicated, though. He used a lot of bigger words too.

However Dustin was still unerringly cheerful. "I like Ernie. He's cool. Kinda reminds me of Kelly."

Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Apart from the fact that they both appear to be human…"

"Well, how many people do you know who would employ a couple of teenagers from off the streets, no references or anything? Plus, you know, he's nice."

"Kelly's only nice when you don't tick her off," Hunter protested.

Dustin sent him a look, purposefully poking out his bottom lip. "When was the last time she got ticked off at you?"

Hunter rolled his eyes, tightening his grip on Dustin's waist. "I've seen her ticked off enough to behave myself, even more around her than Sensei Watanabe."

"Why do you call him that?" Dustin asked, frowning a little. He kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk. It was night – they'd just ended working for the day, so it must have been about nine or even getting close to ten. Cam had stayed behind to help Ernie close up and order a couple more things. He'd told Hunter and Dustin to go back to the hotel – adding a wink to the comment when he said he'd be about an hour. Dustin wasn't so stupid that he didn't know what that meant.

It was Hunter's turn to send him a look. "Who what?"

"Why do you call Sensei 'Sensei Watanabe' all the time?"

Hunter frowned. "I don't know. Its just habit, I think. It was Sensei Omino at the Thunder Academy, why shouldn't it be Sensei Watanabe at home?"

A warm feeling crept through Dustin at that moment. He inched closer to Hunter, dropping his head to Hunter's shoulder and feeling the arm around his waist move to compensate for the added closeness. "Home?" he asked quietly.

It was unspoken, but Hunter still heard the note of uneasiness, a request for reassurance.

"My home is wherever you are."

Dustin smiled faintly, acknowledging Hunter's understanding of the real question. He raised his head and softly pressed a kiss to his boyfriend's cheek.

They kept walking in comfortable silence.

"We need to get Cam a girl."

"Or guy," Dustin smiled.

"Or guy," Hunter amended. He paused for a second before hesitantly asking, "But that would be kinda unlikely…ten percent of the population, and there's probably some kind of limit in a six person group." He glanced down at his boyfriend's head. "Unless you know something that I don't?"

Dustin had no chance to answer.

There was a flash of light beside them, and Hunter tensed. "Duck!"

A sword cut through the air above their heads a millisecond later.

Dustin twisted out from his crouch to kick at the knee of his attacker. He jumped back to his feet. "Whoa, dude, this dimension does not like us!" Dustin called as they were quickly separated by swarms of grey…things.

"What was your first clue?" Hunter yelled back as he narrowly avoided a jab to the midsection. He backtracked quickly into the circle of dim light provided by a streetlight. "Whoa, whoa, can't we talk about this?" Hunter asked, grabbing the streetlight behind him and launching his feet up into one face. He received another sword swing as an answer.

"Okay. Obviously not."

He ducked another wide swing before one of them jumped on his back. Hunter growled, swinging around to block a punch and in turn throw one of his own. Spinning quickly to avoid any other attempts at attacks, he choked slightly as the thing on his back decided to change from simply hitching a ride to attempting to strangle him to death.

Dustin was having an equally easy time. One lucky swipe early on had opened up a cut on his forehead – it wasn't deep, but it was stinging and bleeding enough to run into his eyes. Luckily enough, the closest thing he'd had to a specialty at the Wind Academy was blindfold combat – when he didn't have them he didn't need them. He blocked a pair of punches before falling into a roll, effectively missing a suicide dive headed towards his head and sweeping the legs of two of his attackers.

A hit to the back of his head, however, surprised him and he fell, off balance, to the dirt. More specifically, **into** the dirt.

Dazed, he recovered slowly in the warmth of his Earth. A slight ringing in his head was slowly dying down, and nothing could touch him here. Here, he was safe. A muffled thump, and vibrations from above, made him remember the fact that Hunter was all alone up there.

Mentally kicking himself for leaving his boyfriend up there by himself, Dustin leapt back into the fight, all the while ignoring the throbbing in his head that the movement started up. Launching one of the grey dudes into the air with the force of his jump out of the earth, he timed it perfectly and kicked the guy into the air. As he landed, however, he stumbled slightly, landing first on both feet before falling to a knee.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he twisted away from it. Suddenly, more hands clasped his arms and shirt. Dustin looked up and saw only mechanical faces looking down on him. He tried to lunge out of their grasp, but even as he felt relief at a few hands letting go, a dozen more took their place.

"Hunter!" Dustin yelled out in a panic. "Help!"

The blond Thunder Ninja spun where he was, currently attempting to down three of the machines at once. He used one pair of shoulders to flip up and over the circle of figures surrounding him, and then used another pair nearly like stepping-stones to fly above head height to see what exactly was happening to his boyfriend. "Dustin!" he yelled. "I'm coming!"

Another hard blow to his head made Dustin see stars. He slumped, a trickle of blood still slowly seeping into his eyes. Everything slowly darkened, and Dustin knew no more.

Hunter fought on, unknowing of Dustin's physical state. "Dustin!" he yelled, managing to push a few more of those things out of the way. A brief rush of fear ran through him as Dustin was silent.

A stray hand scraped his right leg, and he stumbled.

That's all that was needed for wave upon wave of the grey things to nearly cover him completely. Hunter struggled in vain as hard, metal fingers closed around his limbs, an arm wrapping uncomfortably tight around his chest. He was lifted from the ground, and more hands grabbed his ankles.

A few more of the metal beings moved from in front of him, and Hunter stopped struggling, his blood running cold, shock rushing through his veins, and all other things in his line of sight slowed and stopped.

Dustin looked dead.


	7. in the thought processes

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Summary: Lothor decides to split up the team. As a result, three Rangers are sent back in time – to 1995 – and hundreds of miles away – to Angel Grove.

Timeline: Just after The Wild Wipeout, just after Stop the Hate Master.

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, I don't own it. The majority of things in here belongs to Saban.

Warning: there is slash in here. If you don't know what that is, it is a homosexual relationship. To be precise, two. Possibly three, I haven't thought ahead quite that far.

Pairings as determined by me: Adam/Rocky, Hunter/Dustin, Cam/?

Note: Holy moly, I've got nearly 100 reviews. Thank you all so very much – but maybe as a thank you I won't wait so long between chapters again. This is one of the slower chapters, as least it seemed that way when I was writing it, but it is the glue that holds the rest of the story to the beginning.

* * *

His head felt like it was on fire.

And he couldn't see.

Why couldn't he see?

"Dustin?" a familiar voice asked from above him.

"Hunt?"

"Yeah, babe. Are you okay?"

Dustin rubbed his head, slowly taking stock of himself as he sat up. Colours swirled in front of his eyes, and he felt Hunter help him up. His head hurt. A lot. His left forearm hurt. Not quite so much. And either sweat or blood was trickling down his neck.

"Where are we?" Dustin muttered, swiping irritably at the liquid on his neck.

"I'm not sure. When you got knocked out we just appeared here, minus the grey dudes." There was a pause, before Hunter's fingers came to probe gently at Dustin's neck, covering where his fingers had been previously. "You do remember the grey dudes don't you?"

"Yeah, course. They were the swarms and swarms of…yeah, grey dudes. Massively headache inducing though. They sucked."

Hunter's fingers withdrew, and he heard Hunter shifting behind him. "Uh, babe? You never answered my question."

Dustin frowned. "What question?"

"Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Dustin asked, blinking slowly.

Everything was still black.

"Just a…feeling."

"Do you know where we are?" the Yellow Ranger asked, wiping at his eyes. Why the heck couldn't he see?

There was silence.

"Hunt?"

"No," Hunter said, sounding impatient. Dustin suddenly figured that Hunter had nodded, or done something else that he couldn't see.

"Isn't it like in the Evil Guide to the Universe that the bad guy reveals himself, _then _captures the good guys?" Dustin questioned. As soon as he was done speaking colours again swirled in front of him, and he lowered his head to bump softly against his knees.

"God, Dustin, you're starting to scare me now," Hunter's voice came, concerned, from just in front of him. A warm hand lifted his chin and there was a moment of silence as Dustin figured that Hunter was checking him out.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Hunter suddenly asked.

"Three?"

"Try again."

"…one?"

"I wasn't holding any up, Dust."

"…oh."

"What can you see, babe?" the blonde said, running a finger down Dustin's cheek like he would a delicate porcelain doll.

Despite himself, Dustin leaned into Hunter's touch before admitting softly, "Pretty much nothing."

"You stupid…" Hunter said softly, although there was a tinge of affection in his voice. "Tell me these things, okay?"

"I'm sorry Hunt, I just…I thought it would go away."

Hunter sighed, before a couple of scraping noises indicated he was moving.

Dustin waited for a few seconds before reaching out cautiously into the darkness. "Hunter?"

"Babe, I'm still here, just getting comfortable."

A pair of arms came from his side and roughly pulled Dustin over. "Warning! Warning, please," he asked, head swimming again.

Hunter kissed the top of his head. "Sorry," he said apologetically. Even so, Dustin was unceremoniously pulled to rest in between Hunter's legs, his back against Hunter's chest. The Crimson Ranger's arms moved around him then, enfolding him in warmth.

Dustin hadn't even realised he was cold.

* * *

It had been three hours, forty-six minutes and…Cam checked his watch, still on the Harbour time…nineteen seconds since he had arrived back at their hotel.

And Hunter and Dustin weren't here.

Normally back home, if Hunter was out this late he would have dismissed it as boyish tomfoolery and put it up to going out on the town. But right now, where they were, he was on the verge of calling in the FBI, the CIA, ATF and any other three-letter acronyms that sounded important enough.

And he was pacing.

Doing a lot of pacing.

He was wearing tracks in the shoddy hotel carpet.

Tracks so big that Hunter, Blake and Dustin all could have ridden side-by-side and had enough room to turn around.

It would be just his luck if the hotel charged a breakages fee.

As it was, Cam had brought home a couple of packages of ramen noodles and had convinced Ernie to whip up a decent-sized stir-fry. And Dustin and Hunter hadn't eaten since lunch, at about two this afternoon. He had specifically told them that he was coming home just before eleven with dinner. And no way would they have missed out on even the most remote chance of food.

So they were missing.

Oh crap.

* * *

Rocky slowly mashed his peas together, head on one hand as he very precisely turned his peas from solid to mush.

Adam was gay.

His Adam, the one who had coached Rocky in meditation, was homosexual.

His Adam, who had always been so unnerved by his large family, was queer.

It was hard to imagine.

"Rocky, baby, are you alright?" his mother's concerned voice broke into his trance.

He looked up, and forced a smile onto his face for Maria DeSantos. "Fine, mama. Just a long day."

"You've barely touched your food," she scolded lightly, while grabbing a sponge from the sink for his little brother, Tyler, who'd just spilt tomato sauce over the table.

"It's nothing."

She scrutinized him for a few seconds longer before nodding. "If you're-Krista! What did I say about that?" she cried, her attention diverted by his sister.

Rocky moved on to squishing his potatoes.

* * *

It was all Adam could do to stare blindly at the computer screen. His mind was running a million miles an hour, and along a thousand different channels.

Rocky knew, oh God, Rocky knew.

He didn't know it all.

He had heard, more than once, Rocky joke about gays in a not so great light. He'd been deliberate in revealing little things in conversation over the years – his uncle was gay, he'd read statistics on gay-bashing and didn't it suck, etc, etc. But he'd been flying blind until he'd been forced into telling Rocky.

It felt horrible.

Those few seconds where Rocky hadn't said anything had felt like Adam's heart was being ripped from his chest over and over again.

And that was less than half the battle.

What if Rocky noticed Adam looking at him one too many times? Or that he wasn't looking at other guys?

What if Rocky put together all the pieces and discovered Adam was in love with him?

* * *

Hunter looked down on his boyfriend's face, smooth and relaxed in sleep.

It had been a while. And Dustin still couldn't see.

The slash on the back of Dustin's neck had started to scab over, he could see that much. The dim lighting in this place let him see the subtle differences in Dustin's expressions – from when he was awake and in pain to when he was sleeping and relaxed.

Hunter had made his decision.

The door slid open, and the man walked in.

"Well?"

Hunter tenderly ran a hand over Dustin's cheek, apologizing for what he was about to do.

"I'll work for you."

He got the impression that the thing in front of him was happy. "Good," it hissed.

"You'll stop hurting Dustin?"

"Of course," the creature oozed, sounding as sincere as Lothor.

But he had no choice.

"You will answer to the name Hunter in this room only. Outside of it you will be called the Crimson Ranger. Is that clear?"

"Yes," Hunter mumbled, already hating himself for what he was doing. His eyes never left Dustin's face; he already could feel the aura of smugness that came from the being in front of him. Hunter's only consolation was that he was doing this for Dustin – everything he ever did was for Dustin.

"Your mission is to destroy the Power Rangers. Every time you succeed in harming one of them, I will heal your little…friend here. If you are beaten in a battle, you get to watch him suffer."

"Yes."

"You will address me as your Master."

"Yes…master."

The door closed, and the figure walked out. Already Dustin was gaining colour in his cheeks. Hunter buried his head in the crook of Dustin's neck, mindless of the dried blood flaking off onto his forehead. 'I'm so sorry, baby,' he thought softly in his mind.

Lord Zedd would have smirked, had he a mouth. Another evil Ranger. This would spell the end.

Hunter only had to wait a few moments after Zedd had left their cell for Dustin to start to stir. His eyelids started to flutter before he blinked awake, and focused on Hunter. "Hi."

"You can see?" Hunter questioned, his tone coming in somewhere between pleased and disturbed.

Dustin winked and blinked and rubbed his way to a nod. "Still not perfect. But I can see you, dude. And if you did that finger thingy again I could probably pass." Dustin rubbed his neck, hissing slightly as he irritated the scab. Hunter combed his own fingers through Dustin's curls, winding a mini ringlet around his index finger.

"So how are we gonna get out of here?" Dustin broke the silence.

Hunter's stomach dropped. That thing had already created a hold on Dustin, he'd said so. He'd shown that too…with Dustin not being able to see. At first, when he thought Dustin was…was dead, he'd…God, he'd never been so scared in his entire life. Even when the Thunder Academy had been attacked he hadn't been that scared. He'd completely stopped fighting, just gone limp, and the only thing he could see was Dustin's white face, smeared with blood.

He was shoved down corridors, but he was still staring at that too-white face, that too-white face that belonged to the love of his life, the man that was being dragged like a sack of flour on the floor. Parts of his brain were just screaming, screaming the pain of an animal dying in a trap. A separate part of his mind was dumb, struck silent and numb. There was no Dustin, there would be no Hunter.

The only section of his mind that was working was his instincts, the animal instinct for running away, for fighting. Hunter had only just started to struggle when he was thrown into a kneel, some dim part of his mind, some stubborn rebellious part that wasn't screaming or numb or instinctive, that part of his mind objected to kneeling. But with one slam to the head, the noises all shut up as the grey swam, and the fogginess had returned.

Silence reigned until Hunter had gathered his senses and looked up. The thing in front was some perverted artist's version of the human body – where skin should have been muscles glistened, and he felt some detached sense of disgust when red sparks flew around the brain.

Then it spoke.

"I am Lord Zedd, supreme power of evil in the galaxy, soon to rule Earth."

Hunter took a deep breath, willing himself not to look at Dustin's…corpse. Oh God.

"What do you want?"

The chrome grin didn't move. "I am…interested in acquiring your services to wipe out those children that call themselves Power Rangers. You will work for me. Or your friend will die."

Dustin was alive.

It felt like his mind was a slate and a wet cloth had just been wiped over it. Everything was gone except for this immense feeling of relief, of hope, of love.

Hunter could have smacked himself. Dustin's chest was still rising and falling. And why would they have dragged a body all that way if it was just that – a body?

But all the same he'd just been given a choice that wasn't a choice. He'd been given back the hope that Dustin was still alive and he knew that he couldn't go through losing him again.

"Babe?" Dustin questioned, and Hunter snapped back to the present.

Hunter shrugged, hoping it looked nonchalant. Who knew what the skinless freak was capable of if they escaped? He'd made Dustin go blind. He could make Dustin sick. Or kill him. "Let's just see what's going on first," he suggested. Dustin nodded and tilted his head backwards. Hunter obliged him with a peck on the lips. The Earth Ninja smiled, and settled in between Hunter's legs.

Hunter felt sick.


	8. in the panic

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here that you recognise. Unless it's the writing style that you recognise, because I own that, however worthless it may be.

Author: Dingo.

Note: I do apologise for the…three, four?…month gap between chapters. Gone through a lot of personal crap, and didn't feel like writing anything besides bad poetry and later burning it. Admittedly, this is the shortest NiT chapter to date, but...I'll attempt to get the next chapter rolling as soon as possible, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

* * *

The morning came, and Dustin and Hunter didn't.

Cam had slept fitfully, or at least he thought he had. Wouldn't have been once, maybe twice, he'd 'woken up' and a piano had fallen on his head, or he'd been back home and Blake had turned into a navy guinea pig and ran up and bit him on the toe.

He mentally added 'extra stress' under both 'causes of weird dreams' and 'reasons to kill Dustin and Hunter upon finding them'. Not to mention the fact that it was now nine a.m., and they still were not at the hotel.

He'd gone over every possible scenario in his mind in the shower, still keeping an ear out for the door, or Dustin's eerily perky banter, or a snarky comment from Hunter. Cam didn't want to admit it to himself, but it was getting awfully quiet without Dustin's babble and Hunter's…well, Hunter's quiet, but he brought such a presence with him it was impossible to ignore the bastard.

It wasn't exactly as if he could call the police – "Yes sir, my friends are missing. But if you find them, it might not be them, it might be their present doubles…yes, present doubles, we're from the future; we got sent back in time by a psycho alien…sir? Hello?'

He had way too many things to worry about to add to his troubles by looking like a good candidate for a psychiatric hospital. And hadn't that been a TV show back home?

On one of Cam's frequent paces around the rented room his gaze fell upon the cheap clock that hung on the wall. He blinked.

He had thirty minutes to get to work, and explain to Ernie why it was that two members of his staff were not going to be working for the foreseeable future.

* * *

"Oh my God. You're in love with Rocky."

Adam jumped. "Excuse me!"

Aisha stared at him, her mouth agape. "You're in love with Rocky," she repeated, half-sitting and half-falling into the chair beside him.

"Buh," was all Adam could manage, staring back at Aisha. Anyone walking past would have thought they were purposefully imitating fish.

The waiter took this opportunity to poke his head in. "Anything to drink here?" he asked, eyes flicking between them.

Aisha paid utterly no mind. "Have you told him yet?" she challenged.

Adam sent her what would equate to the universal 'shut up before I kill you' look. It had absolutely no effect on the determined Yellow Ranger. "Can we talk about this later?" he pleaded, sending the employee an apologetic look.

"You're not squeaming out of this, frog boy," she threatened. Finally noticing that they were in a public place, she lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. "You're in love with Rocky! And damn I hope you noticed before I did."

"Yes, I did," Adam muttered back, acutely aware that the server next to him was listening in – though he was doing a good job of acting otherwise.

"So? Goss, boy!" Aisha demanded.

Adam looked over to where Rocky was spotting Tommy on bench-press. Then he realised that was the exact action that had tipped Aisha off, and looked back at the counter top sheepishly.

"Adam. Talk. Or you'll force me to do something fairly bad," Aisha threatened.

The waiter patted him on the shoulder in what seemed like a sympathetic manner. "I feel sorry for you."

Adam grunted, now assured that his embarrassment was complete. He banged his head on the tabletop.

"As much as I support you, I don't really want to clean up blood and brain fragments from that table, so I'd appreciate it if you continued that elsewhere," their server continued.

Adam moaned. The entire world was against him.

Aisha said something to the guy in a low voice – Adam couldn't hear her all that well, but when the other guy moved away he figured she'd either ordered or said something not so nice.

Then she scrutinised the top of Adam's head for a few seconds. "You do know that I will hold you to your promise in third grade," she said abruptly.

Dark eyes lifted to take in the picture she made. Adam's voice was muffled against the table, but she could figure out what he said clearly enough. "What?"

"You and me being friends until…what did you say? 'Until the sun explodes and all water on Earth evaporates. Then we can kill each other and shower in each other's blood.'" Aisha paused a moment. "You really were a morbid child, weren't you?"

The waiter returned with two shakes, then stood next to their table.

"Sorry boy. Soap opera's over," Aisha told him with a laugh.

"Darn. And after I hurried so much with your order…" He slouched away, overreacting for the time it took to return to his position at the bar. Aisha watched him with a smile as he returned to picking up drink orders.

Adam watched her for a moment. "Can you get up for a second?" Adam asked.

Mystified, Aisha looked at him through her eyelashes as she sipped from her straw. "Huh?"

Adam stood himself, and reached out a hand.

Aisha narrowed her eyebrows, but took the offered hand. She rose, adjusting her skirt as she did. "What…"

Adam enfolded her in a hug, one arm wrapped tight around her shoulders while another snaked to grasp a handful of hair.

Not one to give up a chance to hug her best friend, Aisha thought "What the hey," and tightened her own grip on Adam, dropping her head to lean on Adam's shoulder.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, Aisha simply enjoying the closeness as she waited for Adam to explain. It wasn't normal – well, it **wasn't** normal, but she didn't like to put it that way – for Adam to initiate a hug or really any prolonged kind of contact.

"Thank you," he mumbled into her hair. "For seeing it. And accepting me."

Aisha squeezed him extra tight before letting him go.

Almost as if he were embarrassed, Adam let her go rather quickly before blushing and sitting down.

She returned to her own seat and took a mouthful of her drink.

"…don't think that gets you out of spilling your guts, boy."

* * *

Dustin was asleep again.

Hunter was sure that it wasn't natural.

No one on Earth…or wherever they were…could sleep this much without even twitching.

Then his toes stated to curl, and the door slid open. Lord Zedd moved into view.

Hunter stood with slight difficulty. Dustin's head had been resting on his thigh, and his leg was furiously protesting movement. The evil being had no expression, but Hunter got the feeling that he wasn't happy.

"You will be sent to Earth in three minutes," Zedd began. "Your friend will be asleep in this room until you return. You will draw out the Rangers. You will concentrate your attack on the Yellow Ranger. If your friend shows up, you will destroy him.

"And if these goals are not met, your lover will die."

Hunter fell to his knees. He would like to have said that it was from his half-dead leg, but he would have been lying.

Everything he had been thinking about in the hours they must have been held was now crashing down on him like a tsunami. Cam. Dustin. His new 'job'. This time's Rangers. Dustin.

"Morph."

Numbly Hunter managed to return to his feet.

"Thunder Storm. Ranger form," he said dully, lacking any of the passion he usually displayed when morphing.

Zedd studied the Ranger before him after the initial flash of crimson had left him poised and ready – physically, at least.

"Draw out Rangers. Centre on Yellow Ranger. Destroy Green if he shows up," Hunter repeated. He wished desperately that he could touch Dustin again before he left…an extra shot of courage.

Zedd lifted his head. "Correct, Crimson Ranger."

In another flash of crimson Hunter dematerialised.

* * *

He landed unceremoniously on a green hill.

Hunter scanned the area quickly.

Public was out in force today.

He ignored the tinge of conscience and lifted his Crimson Blaster to his eye, and fired.

Explosions of dark red rocked an emptypicnic area. With those shots, the general public exited the area fairly quickly.

Hunter smiled slightly under his helmet. No chance of civilian casualties.


	9. in the middle of a gunfight

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Disclaimer: I own nothing Power Rangers related except for a few DVDs and a few more videos. I remain a fan who has a large imagination and a vibrant daydream of Hunter squaring off against Adam. Of course, that daydream had them in boxer shorts and baby oil was involved, but the ratings don't allow me to go in to specifics.

Author's Note: I am sincerely sorry to everyone that has reviewed that I don't seem to update as frequently as anyone (including myself) would like. This chapter has been hanging around my harddrive for nearly three months, however it never seemed finished to the point I wanted to be at in chapter 9. And, my (deity), 140 reviews? People, that equals 17.5 reviews per chapter. Y0u lik3 m3, y0u r34lly r34lly lik3 m3!

* * *

Hunter moved strictly on autopilot.

If he didn't he would crack. He'd split right down the middle, his brain splitting and his sanity turning to nothing but dust and memory.

Already images of a Yellow Ranger lying broken flickered in the back of his mind – he didn't notice whether the figure had a skirt or not. He didn't notice if his mind had made them up on the spot or if he'd been remembering Dustin.

If the Rangers' attention hadn't been drawn by the initial shots that had cleared the area, it would be now. He fired once more at an old wooden swing. The left supports vaporised. It remained standing for a few seconds before slowly leaning over, gathering speed until it hit the earth with a resounding crash.

The Crimson Ranger surveyed the wreckage.

It looked like one of his moto jumps from back home.

A band of pain exploded around his stomach, forcing him backwards. He reflexively turned with the force, rolling back until he could spring to his feet again. Blinking tears from his eyes, the Crimson Ranger glared at his multi-coloured adversaries.

The Red Ranger lowered his blaster.

"Ouch," the Crimson Ranger growled.

He leapt into the air, intending to come down on the Red Ranger's shoulders.

He missed.

The Black Ranger had pushed the Red aside.

The Crimson Ranger narrowed his eyes under his helmet. If they wanted to play, they could play.

He called up his own Crimson Blaster and with five quick shots took down Pink, Yellow, White, Blue and Red.

Then he focused on Black.

* * *

There were very few things that made Cam truly scared. His father dying, the loss of any physical capabilities, and bugs.

That episode with the Stinger had freaked him out a little, okay?

But one thing that was rapidly climbing the list was an evil Hunter.

Or maybe that was just because he was witnessing it right now.

Hunter was pounding away at this reality's Black Ranger. Black-and-Blue Ranger, after Hunter was done with him. Cam winced as the figure in black was nonchalantly tossed into a tree, then upon stumbling back from the collision was met with a sick-looking uppercut to the back of the head. He went down immediately.

Irrationally he thought of Blake, and what he'd think if he knew his brother was evil again.

And then he criticised himself for jumping to conclusions, and raced down from his vantage point to assist Hunter – though it didn't seem as if he needed much help; he flung a limp Black Ranger towards his friends as they headed for a standoff. As soon as they had sufficiently beat back these Rangers, they could leave. And then Hunter could tell him where the hell he and Dustin…had…been…Cam's mind slowed as it finally dawned upon him what exactly was wrong with this picture.

Dustin was missing.

Nevertheless, he soared over the heads of his opposing Rangers to stand side by side with Hunter.

"The other one. Fantastic," one of the females muttered.

Hey, he couldn't tell their voices apart. They were wearing helmets, for the love of Pete.

Cam sent a glare to Hunter. He supposed that the impact of it must have been lost through his helmet visor, as Hunter looked back at him without movement.

"We have some serious talking to do," he muttered.

Hunter inclined his head a fraction, as if to say "After you".

Before Cam had even turned his head to face the front, Hunter blindsided him.

* * *

That probably wasn't supposed to happen, Billy thought.

The Green Ranger went down hard from the hexagonal shield that the dark red one held. He'd thrown it almost like a boomerang into the back of the neck, which had seemingly knocked the Green Ranger out. Without hesitation, he'd drawn his blaster, aiming it at Green's head. Green lay face down in the dirt, not moving.

No matter what, Rangers had promised to protect the innocent and the helpless. Maybe this Green Ranger didn't fit in the first category. But right now, he exemplified the second. Billy had been friends long enough with Kimberly to know she felt the same. They'd been Rangers long enough to know what to do about it.

The shot ended up hitting Green on the knee. Billy and Kim had shot across and grabbed Green, dragging him along the ground and out of the direct line of fire. The shot had missed his head and instead brushed his leg.

To distract Crimson enough to get Kim, Billy and Green out of there, Tommy and Rocky had launched themselves into the air, using their weight and momentum to force Crimson back and away from Green. Crimson stumbled back, sparks flying off his chest from the force of their kicks.

Aisha joined the fray, managing to tie up Crimson enough in a flurry of punches and kicks long enough so Rocky could take in the rest of the makeshift battleground. Tommy, Aisha and himself were circling the Crimson Ranger. Adam was slowly recouping far enough away to be safe and yet able to rejoin the fight when he felt better. Green was near him, still motionless. Kim was performing her makeshift nursing duties on both Adam and Green. And Billy was standing defensively in front of the infirm squad.

A scream of pain made Rocky whip his head around to the melee in front.

The Crimson Ranger's left arm was hanging limp from his shoulder. Aisha landed with no small amount of grace from her flying attack, knocking the weapon out of the evil Ranger's hand. His blaster was now lying a few feet in front of Tommy, who gingerly kicked it out of their circle. Rocky could hear the Crimson Ranger's breathing, irregular and trembling. The remaining Rangers fit for fighting had backed off to a reasonable distance. Crimson looked around wildly for an escape route.

As he stepped to the side, Rocky had made sure there was none.

Accepting the conclusion he came to, the Crimson Ranger glared down at his useless arm.

"Damn it."

With a violent twist and a muffled scream, the Crimson Ranger popped his shoulder back into place.

Rocky had to blink in sympathy. One of his old sparring partners had dislocated a shoulder and had been in agony for months. Before it had been set, it couldn't be touched without fair amounts of morphine.

Staring at his now next-to-useless arm, the Crimson Ranger let out another muffled cry, using his good arm to move his left into a protective position over his chest. He let out a whimper, doubling over for a moment before rising again. Rough and unsteady breaths punctuated the next few moments before the Ranger looked up at the circle around him, and then to the remaining Rangers away from the fight – Kim, Billy, Adam and the one in green.

"Hunter."

The voice wasn't one that Rocky could identify.

"Cam," the Crimson Ranger returned, no small note of pain in his voice.

The Green Ranger stumbled forward, a gloved hand holding the back of his head.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The Crimson Ranger shrugged his right shoulder. His left arm was still held protectively to his chest. "What I have to."

Moving forward slowly, the Green Ranger came closer to his former ally than Rocky, the 'stupid daredevil' himself, would have risked.

"Where's Dustin, Hunter?"

Rocky believed the question came from Green, but the question had been said so softly that he couldn't identify the voice.

He heard a shift from behind him. He was willing to bet it came from Adam – he wouldn't have been the only one to recognise the name.

Crimson lifted his good arm and pointed at the Green Ranger. "That would be the question."

A flash of red lightning later, the Crimson Ranger was gone.

* * *

"Okay. So what the heck just happened here?" Kim snapped, her last thread of patience disintegrating as she assisted Adam to his feet.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Tommy demanded of the figure in green.

The Green Ranger sighed.

Cam mentally calculated the risk of demorphing. It'd prove that he was serious about being on the side of good. Then again, it'd identify him, and if it came down to it he'd lose the element of surprise.

The last reason was weaker than he thought it would be. After what had just happened, he was willing to wager that he wouldn't be fighting against these Rangers any time soon. Hunter had seemingly defected (seemingly, ha – it wasn't everyday that Hunter would blindsided him and knock him out) and now these Rangers were the only things he was even close to certain about in this universe. They protected civilians, and Hunter had provoked the fight. In his definitions for good and evil, those were his main points.

Deciding to take the risk, he glanced around for civilians. Nothing like outing yourself to a few busybodies too enthralled with the beauty of the park to have made their way to a safe place during what had obviously been a hell of a fight between good and evil.

Having visually cleared the area, Cam deactivated his morpher.

Splinters of green flew off him as he revealed his identity. There was no reaction from the Pink Ranger – she was the only one to not react.

"You!" the White and Blue Rangers said at nearly the same moment.

The Red Ranger shifted slightly, although whether from the shock of Cam's demorph or not he couldn't tell.

The Yellow Ranger lightly slapped the Black Ranger on the shoulder as if to draw his attention, careful not to injure him further. "You're the guy who works for Ernie."

Cam rolled his eyes. He'd exposed himself to the damn world here, demorphed in front of whoever was controlling Hunter and whoever was in charge of this Ranger team, and they had yet to return the courtesy of showing their faces.

"Look," he said impatiently. "Obviously you know who I am, and where I'll be. I'm closing up for Ernie tonight – I'll meet you out the back at nine o'clock." He glanced at the place where Hunter had disappeared. "I need to get back."

Without waiting for an answer, Cam jogged up the hill towards the Youth Centre and was out of sight in a moment.

In a silent arrangement, the remaining six Rangers demorphed. "Adam, go with Kim to the Command Centre – you need to get checked out by Alpha. The rest of us need to keep an eye on this guy."

As Adam and Kim fizzled away in streaks of colour, Rocky leaned in towards Billy.

"Next time there's a new evil Ranger, we suspect the new guy in town."


	10. in the consequences

Title: New In Town

Author: Dingo

Disclaimer: Yes, I own them. Of course. And Adam and Rocky made a cameo in every season. Kissing. And there was an in-depth look at Ranger relationships in Legacy of Power. And Carlos had had long hair in the Space/Lost Galaxy teamup.

* * *

"Okie-doke. Strip, froggy."

Adam blushed through a smile. He lifted one arm halfway up before wincing. "Um…I don't think I can."

Kim frowned, turning from her table of tools to the Black Ranger. "That can't be good."

She gently pulled the hem of his shirt up on one side. Adam thanked his lucky stars that one, his bright red face was now shielded by a layer of cloth, and two, that it was highly unlikely Tommy was about to walk in on his girlfriend removing the clothing of his (gay yeah, well he doesn't know that, does he, some small annoying voice insisted on pointing out) teammate.

However, Kim was all business. "Can you pull that one in?" she asked, tapping his forearm.

With a slight hiss of pain, Adam pulled his arm towards his chest. Kim pulled the shirt over his head, then gently over his more-injured arm.

"I'm guessing that one hurts more?" Kim asked rhetorically.

"Uh, yeah," Adam managed, suddenly acutely aware of how cold the Command Centre was when one lacked a shirt.

Kim busied herself with a few varying scanning machines (he didn't know the names; nursing was Kim and Billy's departments, not his – he barely knew the right end of a stethoscope) and he tested out his fingers.

"What's the prognosis, Doctor Kim?" he asked ten minutes later when she had used most of the machines Alpha had brought in earlier.

"You've got a deep muscle bruise on your upper left arm," she shrugged. "And you'll have a heck of a headache for a while. Other than that, everything's just peachy!"

Adam frowned.

Kim noticed.

"Or not?" she offered, sitting on the hospital-bed-replica alongside him. Adam didn't look up at her, so she patted his leg. "Come on. Tell Aunty Kimmy what the matter is. Are those little girls beating you up again?"

Adam managed to crack a smile.

"Do you want me to go sort them out?" Kim asked seriously, bending so she could look Adam in the eye.

"No, it's alright."

"You having a fight with Rocky?" she asked.

Adam blinked. "How did you know?"

"I'm not a complete airhead. You guys barely spoke this afternoon, and then you pushed him out of the Crimson Ranger's way."

"It's not really a fight. He just…"

"He just what?" Kim persisted.

"He got me to say something I didn't really want to admit to."

"You have a crush on Aisha?"

Adam recoiled. "No! She's like a sister to me!"

Kim smiled. "You have a crush on me?"

Adam almost laughed. "No! You're like a sister to me!"

"You have a crush on Rocky?"

Kim grinned again, waiting for the adamant refusal. Which she didn't get.

Adam's silence was incriminating enough.

"On Rocky?" she repeated.

Adam could only nod miserably. "I don't…have a crush. I love him," he managed.

"And you've told him this, right?" she asked.

"Not about him. The whole 'Adam is a poof' thing, yeah."

Kim exhaled. "You've got to tell him."

Adam swallowed, staring at his feet, which he now brought up to under his knees in a cross-legged position. "You're taking this well."

The Pink Ranger shrugged, copying Adam's movements so they sat facing each other on the hard metal table. "My brother's gay. And it all makes sense now. You look at him a little too much. And you show him your neck."

Adam blinked at that, his forehead creasing.

Kim noticed. "Never mind."

The Black Ranger slid off the table and started to push his shirt on, past his bad arm.

Kim sat for a moment longer. "You've got to tell him," she repeated.

Adam didn't answer for the few more moments it took for him to pull on his shirt. He fiddled with the hem. "I know," he whispered. Before Kim could reply, there was an electric buzz and Adam teleported away.

* * *

"You failed."

The words bit into the cold atmosphere of Zedd's throne room. The being sat calmly on his chair, his staff clasped loosely by his side as almost an afterthought as he stared at the man kneeling before him. The one who bowed at his feet against his will.

The remaining fragments of Hunter's pride were growling at the edge of his mind, snarling that it was beneath him to kneel, that one carefully-aimed shot of his Crimson Blaster could take Zedd out once and for all, that he could take Zedd out before he took Dustin out with the mind-link thing he claimed to have, that this could be over with a single shot. Then the rest of him whimpered. That was too big a risk to take. Nothing was worth Dustin's life.

_Oh God don't do anything to Dustin, please, oh God…_

Hunter bit his lip to stop his lip shaking. "Please…"

"Do you think that I won't do something just because you say 'please'?" Zedd sneered.

The grating tone of his voice made Hunter's fists clench. "No…master."

"Take him to his cell." Zedd settled back on his throne with all the ease of a man in complete control. "You know what punishment awaits you."

Hunter went numb as two minions grabbed his arms and dragged him away.

"What will you do to him, my lord?" Goldar questioned.

"Anything I please," Zedd snapped.

The large monkey gripped his sword tighter and bowed his head. "Of course, your Lordship."

Zedd tapped his staff on the ground. "Then again. He has taken the Green Ranger out of commission. And he injured the Black Ranger severely."

He settled deeper into his throne, as content as an evil, soulless being could be. "The anticipation of his companion being harmed is a punishment in and of itself. In the end he will punish himself nearly as much as I could."

* * *

Cam stretched out his back as he pulled down the roller-door at the back of Ernie's. He glanced around at the street behind him. Lit up with streetlights as far as the eye could see, he couldn't make out a single human form. It was nine – nearly nine o'clock, he corrected himself as he looked at his watch; he was early. After a long shift with no rest or time to pop an Advil or two or twenty for his aching head, he didn't feel like waiting around for a squad of presumably inquisitive Rangers, even if they were on the same side now. Even if they'd apparently saved his ass from a completely nutso Hunter (he'd seen the replay on TV). It really was amazing how much the media reports were able to catch on film. They'd reported Hunter's random attacks on park equipment almost a full minute before the Power Rangers arrived (by which time he'd been out of Ernie's like a shot from a cannon). Luckily enough they hadn't caught his demorph on film.

He fidgeted with the keys for a moment, finally locating the right one after a few false starts and locking the door. Cam sighed, brushing the hair from his face as he turned.

And started.

The young man behind him crossed his arms over his chest. Behind him, two girls and another three boys stood in vaguely threatening positions.

"Warn someone, please," Cam said wearily, the slight scare hastening his heart rate and therefore the throbbing in his head. He frowned. He should have sensed them coming, even with a monster headache and his preoccupation.

He frowned further as he realized he could identify a number of the people in front of him.

"You guys were in the Youth Centre," he stated slowly.

Billy nodded.

"Please forgive me for sounding slow, but you guys are the Power Rangers, aren't you?"

"We are," the petite girl standing at Tommy's shoulder agreed.

"What do you want from us?" Tommy asked directly. They closed rank, the Korean and African-American on one side, Billy, Rocky and the other girl on the other.

"I don't want anything from you," Cam replied hesitantly. "I just hope you'll stop attacking me on sight."

Tommy uncrossed his arms and placed them on his hips. This seemed to be a signal of sorts – they all relaxed slightly. The Korean rubbed his left arm as if in pain, and Cam made the connection between the colour he was wearing and the Ranger who had been thrown against a tree arm- and shoulder-first earlier.

Aisha – was her name Aisha? – nodded. "And…Hunter?" He shared a glance with Rocky. "The Crimson Ranger?" he verified.

Cam shrugged, though his movements were painted with an undercurrent of resignation. "Hunter…I don't know. He'll do what he has to be done to keep Dustin safe." His eyes sharpened. "Speaking of…why would he do this? By your very existence, I assume you have an evil mastermind lurking around…is it possible that he kidnapped Dustin? Would he do that?"

Tommy and Billy looked at each other. "If Zedd sensed an opportunity to get an evil Ranger, he'd leap at it," Billy agreed.

"Why would he kidnap a Ranger just to have one Ranger fighting?" the girl in pink asked. Cam, not for the first time, rolled his eyes at the sheer advertisement Rangers seemed to burden themselves with when it came to their colours. "Seems to me he's got two Rangers relatively under his control – why only use the Crimson Ranger?

"Dustin, I'm pretty sure, has a concussion. If he'd been hit in the head again, he wouldn't be much of a warrior on the battlefield." Cam thought for a moment. "Hunter'd be destroyed if Dustin was…" Cam swallowed visibly. "…killed, because of something he didn't do."

"Are you planning on an offensive movement?" Billy asked suddenly, drawing Cam's attention.

"My lack of information on your evil space ninja leaves me at a slight disadvantage," Cam commented mildly.

Billy blinked at the space ninja comment, but didn't miss a step. "Any assistance you may need, you only need to ask."

Cam considered the offer, turning it over in his mind. "I may take you up on that soon."

* * *

Dustin paused in those few moments just after waking, where dreams are still real and sleep softens everything. The limited light cast dark shadows over Hunter's face, showing only a tense jaw and shining eyes. With a few blinks Dustin fully woke up, the memories of being captured and imprisoned tumbling over themselves, forcing a groan from him.

Hunter looked over then, his eyes still intense and muscles still tense. It was the first time Dustin had woken up in this dimension without Hunter holding him as he woke up.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, dude." The brunette rubbed the back of his head. "No headache anymore."

"There's food in the corner." Hunter looked down to his lap, seemingly finished with the conversation.

'Ouch,' Dustin thought. The aloofness in Hunter's voice was evident. He crawled over to the rough tray in the lightest corner of the room. A minute's inspection of the food didn't result in identification. Dustin shrugged to himself, lifting the tray and sniffing its contents.

"It's not poisoned," Hunter commented.

"How do you know?"

When no response came, Dustin glanced over. Hunter looked down at his lap again, averting Dustin's gaze. "I ate it. I don't feel like I'm dying."

His stomach growled, making him realize he hadn't actually eaten since…he didn't know when. He hadn't drunk in almost as long, an aching throat scratching at him. Dustin tentatively poked at a few large grains that looked like thumbnail-sized rice, hesitantly placing them in his mouth and chewing. It tasted like nothing, really, but the fact that he was actually eating was good enough for his stomach. This mostly-dark cell gave neither of them any idea of time, and rather stupidly neither of them wore a watch due to the bulkiness of their morphers.

Dustin almost choked on his meal in his haste to check his wrist.

"My morpher's gone, Hunter," he noted almost calmly, swallowing his mouthful. The strange food had a vague taste of bread crust, but was distracting his stomach.

Hunter looked up quickly. "So's mine."

"And when did you notice this, man?" Dustin asked sharply. Or as sharply as he could, anyway, considering that he was a self-confessed bimbo who couldn't hold a grudge if his life depended on it.

"Just before you fell asleep," Hunter muttered.

Dustin's ears perked up. Picking up the food tray, he managed to find Hunter. He dropped down next to him, taking in the shine of overly-bright eyes and set jaw. "When's the last time you slept?"

Hunter shrugged.

"Have you slept at all since we've been in here?" Dustin persisted. He grabbed a few more pieces of food with his fingers and chewed, studying Hunter even as he did so.

"Maybe for a few minutes," Hunter hedged.

Pulling lightly at Hunter's arm, Dustin urged Hunter to lie down, head resting in Dustin's lap. "Go to sleep, Hunt," Dustin cajoled gently.

Hunter remained stiff and rigid even as Dustin threaded his fingers through Hunter's hair, the sudden coldness Hunter seemed to possess coloring his movements.

"Relax, babe," Dustin soothed, gently rubbing the back of Hunter's neck down to his shoulderblades. A shudder ran through Hunter's body as he ran a hand over his left shoulder.

"Let me stand guard over you for once."

Even after Hunter had drifted off to sleep, he remained tense.

The two of them had previously discussed theories of what exactly they were doing, or not doing as the case may be. Dustin was convinced some evil overlord had captured them for his own sadistic pleasure and was going to wear down their resistance with low-energy gruel. Hunter didn't share any of his theories, though when Dustin brought up the subject Hunter's expression betrayed enough of his thoughts.

No matter how mean Hunter could look at times, he still looked like a little boy when he was sleeping.


End file.
